![]() Another sector, which accounts for 30 per cent, is younger and survives on temporary contracts. One of the main features of the Spanish labour market is its duality - one sector of the population, which is mostly older, is in stable well-protected work contracts. Over 70 per cent of the population is employed in services, one quarter in industry and around four per cent in agriculture. ![]() Young people under the age of 25 have been particularly affected by unemployment - in 2011 over 45 per cent of them did not have a job. The unemployment rate went from a low of eight per cent in 2007 to a record high of nearly 22 per cent in 2011, one of the highest in the EU. In 2010, the budget deficit had increased to nearly ten per cent of the gross domestic product. The economy, which consisted mainly of the construction industry and of income from tourism, was badly hit by the global economic crisis. Nearly a fifth of the population is unemployedĪfter 16 years of uninterrupted growth, the Spanish economy suffered a recession in 2008, and the gross domestic product fell by nearly four per cent in 2009. Most of the people speak Castilian Spanish, but Catalan, Galician, and Basque are also official languages. Spain's population includes 2.2 million Basques in the north, 2.8 million Galicians in the north-west and 7.4 million Catalans in the north-east. This supports linguistic and cultural diversity for the different areas of Spain, and allows for varying degrees of political autonomy. The capital and largest city is Madrid with about 5.7 million inhabitants.Īfter years of dictatorship under General Franco, Spain approved a democratic constitution in 1978. The population of Spain amounts to 46.7 million (2014 estimate). Across the Mediterranean Sea there are a number of Spanish enclaves which border Morocco, the biggest of which are Ceuta and Melilla. The country borders France and Andorra in the north-east, Portugal in the south-west and Gibraltar in the south. Activities with children (photo: SOS archives)
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