Spain: Climate, Biodiversity, Economy, and Language

Climate Patterns in Spain

In winter, polar air masses move south, and Atlantic storms significantly impact the Atlantic coast of the peninsula but rarely reach the interior. On the map, a cold front associated with a low-pressure system approaches the Atlantic Peninsula while an anticyclone dominates.

In the Mediterranean, storms also originate when hot air masses come into contact with cold air, which usually happens in spring and especially in fall. Fall storms often cause torrential rains of short duration but high intensity.

Biodiversity in Spain

Spain is a place that has a high biodiversity worldwide, ranking second after tropical forests. This feature is due to different causes:

• a) Spain encompasses three major plant domains: The Atlantic and the Mediterranean domains in the Peninsula and the Macaronesian domain of tropical character in the Canaries. In contrast, most European countries participate in only one plant domain, which explains why the Spanish landscape is one of the most attractive for its diversity and should be considered a great natural heritage.
• b) The Peninsula was a refuge for warm species during major glacial periods in Europe. The effect of being a refuge, almost isolated, with no period of aggressive climate, favored biodiversity. The flora and fauna adapted to the new environment of the Iberian Peninsula, developing unique characteristics and new species and subspecies (endemic).
• c) The existence of numerous mountain ranges and the plateau favors biodiversity. The change of scenery while climbing a mountain is similar to what we see when traveling from the Iberian Peninsula to northern Europe. This temperature diversity occurs because the air temperature decreases on average by 0.5°C per hundred meters, resulting in significant changes in humidity and temperature between the foot of the mountain and its peaks.

Population and Economy of Spain

Spain has a population of nearly 47 million inhabitants (January 1, 2010) according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). This is the fifth most populous country in the European Union, but its population density (91.4 inhabitants/km², according to INE 2008) is lower than most other Western European countries.

Wealth and Welfare

What characterizes a country most expressively in the world is its level of wealth and welfare. The level of wealth is often measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. GDP is the value of the entire production of a year divided by the number of the population and calculated in dollars. GDP per capita in Spain in 2009 was 22,886 euros. Forecasts indicate that the Spanish economy in 2010 will lose weight in the world and will fill the twelfth position because emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, and India, as well as Canada, will surpass it.

According to the human development index, which summarizes a set of variables (life expectancy, literacy, schooling, GDP), Spain is, according to 2010 values, ranked twentieth with an index of 0.863 (the world's top corresponds to Norway with an index of 0.938).

These data confirm that we are part of a small group of people in the world who enjoy more favorable living conditions, so globally, Spain is considered developed and rich.

Language in Spain

Spain is a multilingual state, which is common in Europe, where only three countries have a unique language (Portugal, Iceland, and Malta). Of the languages spoken in Spain (Catalan, Euskera, Galician, Asturian...), Castilian has the most presence in the world.

With the discovery of America, the Spanish language and culture spread throughout the New Continent, where currently between four and five hundred million people speak Castilian. It is also the second language spoken in the United States due to the large number of immigrants from other countries of the continent (35 million Castilian speakers, 12% of the total population). To a lesser degree, it retains its presence in other territories of former colonies, such as Equatorial Guinea (Africa) and the Philippines (Asia). Castilian is an official language of the UN and an official language at the European Union level.