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Spain SOCIETY
Population: 38.8 million in 1986. Projected 40
million by 1990, 42 million by 2000. Rate of annual growth from
0.8 percent to 1.2 percent from 1930s to 1980s. Growth rates
expected to level off or to decline slightly for remainder of
twentieth century.
Education and Literacy: Primary education (age
six to fourteen) free and compulsory. Insufficient number of
state schools and teachers to meet this goal and rising
enrollment. Gap filled by private schools subsidized by state. By
early 1980s, 40 percent of all schools private. By 1965 country
had achieved nearly universal enrollment in primary grades.
Secondary school attendance optional, but students deciding not
to attend secondary school had to attend vocational training
until age sixteen. In 1985 estimated 89 percent of students did
attend secondary school, and 26 percent attended university.
Adult population 94-97 percent literate in late 1980s.
Health: Uneven provision of health care.
Maldistribution of health care resources of state's welfare
system resulted in poor service in many areas, especially
working-class neighborhoods of large cities. High ratio of
doctors to inhabitants, but low ratio of nurses to inhabitants
and relatively low public expenditures on health care compared
with other West European countries. Tuberculosis, typhoid, and
leprosy not eradicated. Infant mortality rate 10 per 1,000 in
1985. Life expectancy seventy-four years for males and eighty for
females in late 1980s.
Languages: Castilian Spanish official language
and dominant in usage, especially in formal settings, but
estimated one of four Spanish citizens had a different mother
tongue. New 1978 Constitution allows for other languages to be
"co-official" within respective autonomous communities. Catalan,
Galician, Euskera (the Basque language), Valencian, and Majorcan
had such status by 1988.
Ethnic Groups: Spanish state encompassed
numerous distinct ethnic and cultural minorities. New 1978
Constitution recognizes and guarantees autonomy of nationalities
and regions making up Spanish state, and seventeen autonomous
communities existed in late 1980s. Major ethnic groups: Basques,
Catalans, Galicians, Andalusians, Valencians, Asturians,
Navarrese, and Aragonese. Also small number of Gypsies. Ethnonationalistic sentiment and commitment to the ethnic homeland
varied among and within ethnic communities. Nationalist and
separatist sentiment ran deepest among Basques.
Religion: 99 percent nominally Roman Catholic.
Other 1 percent mostly other Christian faiths. Small Jewish
community. Society generally becoming more secular as society and
economy became more modern and developed. Religious freedom
guaranteed by 1978 Constitution, which formally disestablishes
Roman Catholicism as official religion. But church still enjoyed
somewhat privileged status. Continuing government financial aid
to church was contentious issue in late 1980s.
Data as of December 1988
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