Spaniards

Spaniards,[lower-alpha 1] or Spanish people, are an ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both indigenous and local linguistic descendants of the Roman-imposed Latin language, of which Spanish is the largest and the only one that is official throughout the whole country.

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Spaniards

Españoles (Spanish)[lower-alpha 1]
Total population
Spain nationals 41,539,400[1] (for a total population of 47,059,533) Hundreds of millions of Hispanic Americans of full or partial Spanish ancestry[2][3][4][5][6][7] Nationals abroad: 2,183,043[8] Total abroad: 2,654,723,[9] which of them: 840,535 were born in Spain 1,542,809 were born in the country of residence 265,885 others[9]
Regions with significant populations
Spain   41,539,400 (2015)[1]
Diaspora
Argentina	404,111 (92,610 born in Spain)[8][10]
France	273,290 (170,153 born in Spain)[11][8][10]
Venezuela	188,585 (56,167 born in Spain)[8][10]
United Kingdom	185,000 (2020) (including de jure Spanish citizens that were not born in Spain)[12]
Germany	146,846 (61,881 born in Spain)[10][13][14]
Brazil	117,523 (29,848 born in Spain)[8][10]
Cuba	108,858 (2,114 born in Spain)[8][10]
Mexico	108,314 (17,485 born in Spain)[8][10]
United States	103,474 (48,546 born in Spain)[8][10]
Switzerland	103,247 (46,947 born in Spain)[8][10]
Uruguay	63,827 (12,023 born in Spain)[8][10]
Chile	56,104 (9,669 born in Spain)[8][10]
Belgium	53,212 (26,616 born in Spain)[15]
Ecuador	35,616 (13,120 born in Spain)[16]
Colombia	30,683 (8,057 born in Spain)[8][10]
Andorra	24,485 (17,771 born in Spain)[8][10]
Netherlands	21,974 (12,406 born in Spain)[8][10]
Italy	20,898 (11,734 born in Spain)[8][10]
Peru	19,668 (4,028 born in Spain)[8][10]
Dominican Republic	18,928 (3,622 born in Spain)[10][15]
Australia	18,353 (10,506 born in Spain)[8][10]
Costa Rica	16,482[17]
Sweden	15,390[18]
Panama	12,375[17]
United Arab Emirates	12,000[19]
Guatemala	9,311[20]
Morocco	8,003[10]
Ireland	6,794[21]
Poland	5,000[22]
Philippines	3,110[23]
Honduras	~ 1,000 (2009)[24]
El Salvador	2,450[17]
Russia	2,118–45,935[10][25]
Nicaragua	1,826[26]
Greece	1,489[10]
Czech Republic	1,007[10]
Languages
Spanish (see languages)
Religion
Predominantly Catholic Christianity Minority Irreligion[27][28]

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Spanish people
Rojigualda (historical Spanish flag)
Regional groups
Andalusians Aragonese Asturians (including Vaqueiros de Alzada) Balearics Basques Canary Islanders (including Isleños) Cantabrians Castilians Catalans Criollos Extremadurans Galicians Leonese Valencians Other groups Berbers Erromintxela Gitanos Mercheros Maghrebis Occitans Sephardim (including Iberian Jews and Xuetes)
Significant Spanish diaspora
Andorra Argentina Belgium Brazil Chile Colombia Cuba Dominican Republic France Germany Italy Mexico Netherlands Philippines Puerto Rico Switzerland Peru United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela
Languages
Spanish (AKA Castilian) Basque Catalan Galician Other languages Aragonese Astur-Leonese Caló Catalan Sign Erromintxela Extremaduran Fala Judaeo-Spanish Occitan (AKA Aranese) Portuguese Spanish Sign Valencian Sign
Category  Spain portal
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Commonly spoken regional languages include, most notably, the sole surviving indigenous language of Iberia, Basque, as well as other Latin-descended Romance languages like Spanish itself, Catalan and Galician. Many populations outside Spain have ancestors who emigrated from Spain and share elements of a Hispanic culture. The most notable of these comprise Hispanic America in the Western Hemisphere.

The Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Hispania, the name given to Iberia by the Romans as a province of their Empire, underwent a process of linguistic and cultural Romanization, and as such, the majority of local languages in Spain today, with the exception of Basque, evolved out of Vulgar Latin which was introduced by the ancient Romans. At the end of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian Peninsula and established relatively independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi, Alans and Vandals. Eventually, the Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including the Byzantine province of Spania, into the Visigothic Kingdom, which more or less unified politically, ecclesiastically, and legally all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was then documented as Hispania.

In the early eighth century, the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate that arrived to the peninsula in the year 711. The Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula, termed al-Andalus, soon became autonomous from Baghdad. The handful of small Christian pockets in the north left out of Muslim rule, along the presence of the Carolingian Empire near the Pyrenean range, would eventually lead to the emergence of the Christian kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal and Navarre. Along seven centuries, an intermittent southwards expansion of the latter kingdoms (known in historiography as the Reconquista) took place, culminating with the Christian seizure of the last Muslim polity (the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada) in 1492, the same year Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. During the centuries after the Reconquista, the Christian kings of Spain persecuted and expelled ethnic and religious minorities such as Jews and Muslims through the Spanish Inquisition.[29]

A process of political conglomeration among the Christian kingdoms also ensued, and the late 15th-century saw the dynastic union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs, generally considered the point of emergence of Spain as a unified country. The Conquest of Navarre occurred in 1512. There was also a period called Iberian Union, the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Spanish Crown; during which, both countries were ruled by the Spanish Habsburg kings between 1580 and 1640.

In the early modern period, Spain had one of the largest empires in history, which was also one of the first global empires, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 570 million Hispanophones,[30] making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were also many advancements in the arts, with the rise of renowned painters such as Diego Velázquez. The most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was also published during the Golden Age of the Spanish Empire.

The population of Spain has become more diverse due to immigration of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From 2000 to 2010, Spain had among the highest per capita immigration rates in the world and the second-highest absolute net migration in the world (after the United States).[31] The diverse regional and cultural populations mainly include the Castilians, Catalans, Andalusians, Valencians, Balearics, Canarians, Basques and the Galicians among others.