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Spain
Population,
Economy and Education:
Spain is increasingly
urban with 77 per cent of the population living
in towns and cities.
It has a total population of 40,037,995 (2001).
The overall population density is about 79 people
per sq km (205 per sq mi).
The Spanish
people are essentially a mixture of the indigenous
peoples of the Iberian Peninsula with the successive
peoples who conquered the peninsula and occupied
it for extended periods. These added ethnologic
elements include the Romans, a Mediterranean people,
and the Suevi, Vandals, Visigoths (Goths), and
Teutonic peoples. Semitic elements are also present.
Spain
has traditionally been an agricultural country
and is still one of the largest farming producers
in Western Europe, but since the mid-1950s industrial
growth has been rapid.
The GNP in Spain in 1999 was some US$583 billion,
or US$14,800 per head. A series of development
plans that initiated in 1964, helped the economy
to expand, but in the later 1970s an economic
slowdown was brought on by rising oil costs and
increased imports. Subsequently, the government
emphasized the development of the steel, shipbuilding,
textile, and mining industries. Today, Spain has
a gross domestic product around two thirds that
of the leading western European economies. Spain
derives much income from tourism.
Education in Spain is free and compulsory for
children between the ages of 6 and 16. Their schooling
system consists of pre-primary schools (for children
3 to 5 years old), primary (6 to 11), and secondary
(ages 12 to 16, in two-year cycles). Students
may then take either a vocational training course
for one or two years or the two-year Bachillerato
course in preparation for university entrance.
The university system has three cycles. Which
starts with the first cycle, leading to the degree
of Diplomatura that lasts for three years? The
second cycle lasts for two or three years and
leads to the degree of Licenciatura.
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