Spain is a European country and the fourth-largest economy in the European Union. Its prime minister is Pedro Sánchez, who leads a minority Socialist government dependent on hard-left, Basque and Catalan nationalist parties. The leader of the opposition is Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the centre-right People's Party (PP). Málaga is Spain's sixth-largest city. Spain aspires to be a bridge between western Europe and the developing world, with ties of history and language to dozens of nations.
Francisco Franco died on November 20th 1975. Under his law of succession the monarchy was restored in King Juan Carlos, who inherited the dictator's absolute powers. Under pressure of strikes and protests, Juan Carlos swiftly gave those powers away. Spain's transition to democracy was achieved largely without conflict; the only exceptions were a bloodless attempted coup in 1981, which Juan Carlos played a crucial role in quashing, and the terrorism of ETA, a Basque group, eventually defeated without political concessions. The transition was based on a pact between reformers in the regime and an opposition moderated by decades of repression: the left accepted the monarchy and the right accepted decentralisation. An amnesty drew a line under the past. Spain joined NATO in 1982 and the EU in 1986.
In 1975 Spain was still scarred by rural misery and urban shanty towns. Life expectancy was 73 years; today it is 84. Real income per person in purchasing power terms has increased two and a half times. Spanish society moved from Catholic conformism to become one of the most liberal in the world, with a revolution in women's rights.
Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 after an affair with a Danish socialite and the subsequent revelation of Swiss bank accounts (he was later cleared of any wrongdoing). His son, King Felipe, has worked to restore the monarchy's credibility in a country with a large republican minority.
The Spanish left has not forgotten that during the cold war America maintained a prickly alliance with Franco. Memories of Franco-era isolation help explain the attachment of Spaniards to multilateralism and international law. Large majorities support both NATO membership and helping Ukraine, while expressing horror at Israeli policies in Gaza. An annual poll by the Royal Elcano Institute, a Madrid think-tank directed by Charles Powell, found deep antipathy to Donald Trump, who scored below Xi Jinping. According to Eurobarometer, in the EU only Bulgarians, Czechs, Greeks and Slovenians trust their parliament less than Spaniards do.
In 2003 José María Aznar, then prime minister, told the Spanish public that Iraq's regime had weapons of mass destruction. Just 5% of Spaniards supported an intervention. Millions took to the streets in what they saw as an illegal and immoral war, but Mr Aznar dragged the country in alongside America and Britain. The experience reinforced Spaniards' deep scepticism of military adventurism and helped shape the country's attachment to international law and multilateralism.
According to a ranking by The Economist of OECD countries on ten indicators—population size, GDP per person, democracy, alcohol consumption, religiosity and the share of births outside marriage, among others—Spain is the country most similar to Britain. Both built huge American empires, oppressing indigenous populations in God's name, then lost them. Both are composite monarchies that brought together kingdoms with distinct cultures and legal systems, and both contain potent separatist movements today. Spain is the most-visited country by British tourists; in 2024 they visited it twice as much as the next-most-popular destination, France. Three decades ago German was three times as popular as Spanish as a GCSE subject in Britain, and French nine times; Spanish is now more studied than either.
Denmark and Sweden, two Scandinavian countries frequently visited by British policy magpies, are in fact smaller, richer, happier, more highly taxed and less religious than Britain. Canada is more like Britain, which helps explain the transatlantic career of Mark Carney, now Canada's prime minister. France is almost identical to Britain in population and GDP per person, though its tax burden is higher.
Spain has the world's second-longest high-speed rail network. Until 2021 Renfe, a state-owned company, held a monopoly on high-speed services. Since then Iryo, a company led by Trenitalia (Italy's state-owned rail operator), and a French rival have entered the market. The liberalisation has been commercially successful: traffic on the busiest lines has surged by up to 70% as prices have fallen. Adif, the state body that manages rail infrastructure, and Renfe are both homes for political appointees. Some rail experts worry that governments have prioritised expanding the network over maintaining it.
In February 2026 Spain announced plans to bar children under 16 from social media. A study of 11- to 15-year-olds in 27 European countries and Canada based on survey data from 2017-18 found a 14% prevalence of "social-media use disorder" in Spain, the highest rate recorded and roughly double the average of 7%.
Spain is the largest producer of avocados and mangoes in Europe. Since the early 1970s and 1980s, higher temperatures have prompted European farmers to swap traditional citrus fruits for tropical ones. Italy is experimenting too: the number of hectares cultivated with avocados and mangoes there jumped from just ten in 2004 to 1,200. Sicily has recently achieved its first substantial coffee harvests, after experiments dating back to the 1990s.
Spain was the last NATO holdout on a new 3.5% of GDP defence-spending target agreed at the June 2025 summit in The Hague. NATO partners reluctantly agreed to let Spain raise defence spending to just 2.1% of GDP rather than the 3.5% the rest committed to. Mr Sánchez's refusal to contemplate raising defence spending to 5% of GDP placated his hard-left parliamentary allies and is popular with Spaniards, but has infuriated European partners. His minority government has not dared to seek parliamentary approval for a big increase even to meet the previous 2% target. In 2024 Spain spent an estimated 1.28% of GDP on defence. Spain leads a brigade-sized multinational force in Slovakia as part of NATO's forward presence.
The mainstream conservative People's Party (PP), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is the main opposition. The main beneficiary of rising discontent, however, is the populist-right Vox, which won over 17% in regional elections in Extremadura and Aragón in late 2025 and early 2026, forcing the PP into difficult coalition negotiations. Spaniards have moved to the right, according to polls: rising housing costs have cancelled out rising wages, especially for younger people. In some recent polls, a majority of respondents think there are too many immigrants.
China has identified Spain, alongside Hungary, as especially receptive to Chinese investment—part of Beijing's strategy to cultivate warmer ties with individual European countries to neuter their cohesion as a bloc.
Spain's economy has grown twice as fast as the euro-area average since 2023; in 2025 it grew 2.8%. Since 2022 Spain's economic growth has far outpaced the European average, growing at two to three times the euro-area average. Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 2008. Mr Sánchez steered the country through the pandemic and strengthened the welfare state. Growth is more solidly based than during the pre-2008 housing boom: Spain has had a current-account surplus since 2014, and both labour productivity and real incomes have been creeping up. A tourism boom, large-scale immigration and EU Next Generation funds have all spurred growth, alongside expansion in higher-value sectors such as ICT, biotech and pharmaceuticals. But income per person was converging towards the euro-area average until 2005 and then fell back.
Each year sees 140,000 new households but only around 80,000 new homes, partly owing to immigration. The fertility rate has plunged to 1.2, one of the lowest in the world. Immigrants now account for 19% of Spain's population, up from just 2% in 2000; almost half are Latin American and integrate fairly easily. Recent polls show a narrow majority think there are now "too many" immigrants—one factor in the rise of Vox, on the populist right.
Spain's judiciary has become caught up in a bitter political war. Multiple court cases target allies of Pedro Sánchez, including corruption investigations, the conviction of the former prosecutor-general for leaking tax information, and charges against Mr Sánchez's wife (Begoña Gómez) and brother. Mr Sánchez calls it judicial harassment and "lawfare"; the opposition People's Party relies on the courts to do what it cannot in parliament. Judges are routinely labelled conservative or progressive; multiple political judicial associations exist. Five judicial associations went on strike in July 2025 over bills they said threatened independence. Three root causes are identified: a broken system for renewing the General Council of the Judiciary; the Sánchez-Catalan separatist amnesty deal, which angered the Supreme Court; and the cases against Mr Sánchez's family, some pursued by an elderly ancillary judge acting on far-right accusations. Legal observers say biased judges are a tiny minority, but the politicisation is eroding trust on all sides.
In June 2025 a police report revealed systematic corruption by two of Mr Sánchez's closest aides, undermining his promise of "democratic regeneration" when he came to power. Mr Sánchez has been unable to pass a budget since 2023. He called and lost a snap election in July 2023 but remained in office because Alberto Núñez Feijóo's People's Party fell four votes short of a parliamentary majority. The amnesty for Catalan separatists was the only substantial law Mr Sánchez has managed to approve in the current parliament. A proposed cut in the working week to 37.5 hours and measures to "democratise" the judiciary have been stalled; the latter prompted an unprecedented three-day strike by half of Spain's judges. To please Catalan nationalists, Mr Sánchez defied European policy to block the merger of BBVA and Sabadell, two banks. His foreign minister has irritated other Europeans by pushing for Catalan, Basque and Gallego to be accepted as official EU languages.
Catalonia is one of Spain's largest and richest regions. In 2017 a separatist Catalan government plunged Spain into turmoil with an unconstitutional referendum on secession and a unilateral declaration of independence. Nine of its leaders were jailed.
Support for independence has fallen from a peak of 48% in 2018 to 38% (and 28% when respondents are offered a menu of options). In elections, separatist parties lost their majority in the regional parliament for the first time since 2010, bringing Salvador Illa, a Socialist, to the presidency at the head of a minority government. Some 4,000 businesses moved their domicile to other parts of Spain during the crisis; some are trickling back. The region has more than 50 Michelin-starred restaurants.
Mr Sánchez pardoned the nine jailed separatist leaders in 2021 and removed the crime of sedition from the penal code. On June 26th 2025 Spain's constitutional tribunal endorsed an amnesty law benefiting several hundred people involved in the independence campaign. The amnesty was criticised as an illegitimate "self-amnesty" by lawyers at the European Commission, because the secessionist parties had helped draft the law. The Supreme Court has ruled that a charge of misuse of public funds against Carles Puigdemont, a former regional president who fled abroad in 2017, is not covered by the amnesty.
Total public investment in fire prevention in Spain fell by more than half between 2009 and 2022, according to a lobby group of forestry companies. Europe is warming faster than other continents: since the mid-1990s its average temperatures have risen by 0.53°C per decade, more than double the global land average of 0.26°C. Of European wildfires with known causes, 57% are lit deliberately, according to the most recent EU-wide study (using 2016 data); accidents and negligence account for 39%, and natural causes just 4%.
In late July and early August 2025, hot and windy conditions spread wildfires across Spain and Portugal. The fires added nearly 14m tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere—in the form of carbon dioxide and soot—significantly more than recorded in any previous European wildfire season. Soot, being black, absorbs solar radiation, compounding climate change.
Spain has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in Europe. Wind and solar alone account for more than 40% of the total electricity supply; in 2024 wind, solar and hydro together provided nearly 60%. Electricity demand peaked in 2007 before the financial crisis and has not recovered: power-guzzling industries such as aluminium have shut down because of past high costs, and electric vehicles have been slow to spread in a country of long distances with a sparse charging network. Thanks to renewables, the wholesale electricity price was 40% lower in 2024 than if the energy matrix had remained as it was in 2019, according to a study by the Bank of Spain. Nuclear power accounted for 19% of generation in 2024, providing cheap, clean and constant power; the government plans to shut the country's nuclear plants between 2027 and 2035.
Red Eléctrica de España (REE), the state-controlled company that both owns the high-voltage grid and manages the whole system, warned in a February 2025 report to Spain's stockmarket regulator that the country's reliance on renewables could lead to grid instability. Its regulatory regime encourages it to over-invest in the high-voltage grid. The supply of solar power, which tends to be highest in the middle of the day when demand is lower, has not gone hand in hand with sufficient investment in storage and stabilisation technologies, such as batteries.
Spain's heavy investment in wind and solar has paid dividends during the third Gulf war: so far in 2026, gas has set power prices only 15% of the time, compared with 89% for Italy.
On April 28th 2025 Spain's electricity grid suddenly lost 15 gigawatts of power, equivalent to 60% of national demand. The drop caused most of the country's electricity system to shut down, followed by much of neighbouring Portugal's. Trains and metros halted, 35,000 passengers had to be evacuated, traffic lights failed, hospitals cancelled non-essential operations, and mobile-phone and internet networks went dark. Most of Spain's electricity was not restored until 7am the following day. REE called the blackout "exceptional and totally extraordinary".
The initial failure appears to have occurred in south-west Spain, the source of most of the country's solar power, at a time of day when the grid was relying heavily on solar generation. Two further faults followed, including one in the interconnection between Spain and France. Renewable-heavy grids can be particularly vulnerable to large disturbances because they lack the physical inertia provided by the large rotating turbines of gas or coal plants, which helps smooth fluctuations. Solutions include building synthetic inertia such as flywheels, and investing in hydropower. It was a combination of hydropower and gas plants that generated enough inertia to help restart Spain's grid. Importing extra power from France and Morocco also aided recovery.
The future lies ahead.