Spain's Tertiary Sector: 2007 Regional GDP Contributions

Spain's Tertiary Sector in 2007: Regional Analysis

Choropleth thematic maps, where color intensity represents quantity, illustrate the state of Spain's tertiary sector in 2007. This analysis focuses on the sector's contribution to the working population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across different autonomous communities (regions).

National Overview and Regional Disparities

In Spain, the average contribution of the tertiary sector to national wealth was high at 66.8% in 2007, typical for a developed country. However, significant differences existed in the degree of economic tertiarization among regions.

Regional Groupings by Tertiary Sector Contribution

Based on the map legend, Spain's autonomous communities can be categorized into four groups according to the tertiary sector's contribution to their economy:

Group 1: Contribution Over 70%

• Regions: Madrid, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla.
• Madrid: Its high contribution is explained by several factors:
  • Its role as the state capital, increasing administrative services.
  • Its function as a major financial center.
  • The location of numerous national and international company headquarters.
  • Significant outsourcing of services from the industrial sector.
  • Prominent urban centers.
  • Its function as a national market hub due to converging transportation networks.
  • Diverse tourism forms (conferences, conventions, cultural tourism linked to rich heritage).
• Balearic and Canary Islands: Driven by tourism development, boosting directly and indirectly related services, especially consumption (hotels, restaurants, trade, etc.).
• Ceuta and Melilla: The high weight of the public sector is significant due to the practical absence of other productive activities (primary or secondary sectors) because of their small size and lack of natural resources suitable for industrial transformation.

Group 2: Contribution Between 65% and 69%

• Region: Andalusia.
• Factors: Related to tourism and the predominance of administrative services.

Group 3: Contribution Between 60% and 64%

• Regions: Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, and Extremadura.
• Factors: Characterized by the marked influence of both industry and the tertiary sector, often linked to the existence of metropolitan urban areas.

Group 4: Contribution Less Than 60%

• Regions: Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country, Castilla y León, Aragon, La Rioja, and Castilla-La Mancha.
• Factors: These communities exhibit:
  • Greater economic weight of the primary sector (e.g., Galicia, Castilla y León, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha).
  • Greater economic weight of the secondary sector (e.g., Asturias, Basque Country, Aragon, La Rioja).
  • A predominance of lower-skilled services generating lower added value, such as personal services, trade, administrative, and welfare services.

Factors Influencing Regional Differences

Several factors explain the varying contributions of the service sector to regional GDP:

• Population size
• Degree of urbanization
• Level of economic development and income
• Economic weight of the primary and secondary sectors
• Predominant type of service activities

Future Outlook

These territorial inequalities in tertiarization might increase in the future. With the process of administrative decentralization (a creator of administrative jobs) largely completed, the distribution of services will likely be increasingly determined by the unequal distribution of productive activities and income. This could accentuate existing imbalances.