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Spain is considered by many, including a large part of Spanish population, to be a group of nations unified under a single State, much like Belgium, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. Despite this, the policy of many Spanish governments has led to a "Spanish nationhood" which is the one people identify with Spain internationally.
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 recognizes historic entities ("nationalities", not "nations") such as Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country or Navarre. In the 19th and 20th centuries, similar recognition was rare and short-lived.
But Spain's identity is, in fact, an overlap of different national identities, some of them even conflicting.
Castile is considered to be by many the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards ( comuneros ). Today, Castilians generally consider themselves to be Spanish first, with regional identity being of lesser importance.
The opposite is the case of Galicians, Asturians, Catalans and Basques, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Asturias, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe.
The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration ( rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands.
Until 1714, Spain was a loose confederation of kingdoms and statelets, under the same king, until King Philip V removed the autonomous status of the Aragonese crown. Moreover, the creation of a unified state in the 19th and 20th centuries has lead to the present situation, apparently simple, but sometimes extremely confusing. During the Second Spanish Republic ( 1931- 1936), the Basque and Catalan were given limited self-government, which was lost after the Spanish Civil War ( 1936- 1939) and restored in 1978 during the transition to democracy .
Yet, relationships betweeen Hispanic peoples have created strong ties between them, which are more apparent to foreigners than differences.
The most important minority group in the country are the Gitanos. Other indigenous minorities are Merchero s (or Quinquis) and Vaqueiros de alzada .- The later, meaning "Mountain cow-breeders" dwell in mountain ranges in the Principality of Asturias and have kept historically apart from the valley dwellers. Foreign minorities include Arabs and Berbers mainly from Morocco and other countries of North Africa, and South-Americans mainly from Ecuador and Colombia.
According to membership missing source?, the second religion of Spain is the organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses; there are also many protestant branches, all of them with less than 50,000 members, and about 20,000 Mormons.
Evangelism has been better received among Gypsies than among the general population; pastors have integrated flamenco music in their lithurgy. Taken together, all self-described "evangelicals" slightly surpass Jehovah's Witnesses in number.The recent waves of immigration have led to an increasing number of Muslims, who still acccount for only a fraction of a percent. Muslims were forcibly converted n 1492 and then expelled in the 16th century. Since the expulsion of the Sephardim in 1492, Judaism was practically nonexistent until the 19th century.
During the last thirty years, Spain is becoming a secularised society. The number of believers has decreased significantly and for those who believe the degree of accordance and practice to their church is quite diverse.
According to the latest official poll (CIS, 2002), 80% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholic, 12% as non-believer, and 1% as other (the remaining 7% declined to state). Of the 1.4% identifying as other, 29% identified as Evangelical Christian, 26% as Jehovah's Witnesses and 3% as Muslim (the rest either mentioned smaller religions or declined to state). According to the same poll, 73% believe in God, 14% don't and 12% are unsure (1% declined to state). Additionally, according to this poll, only 41% believe in Heaven. 24% of the Spaniards think that the Bible is just a fable. Only 25% of Catholics go to church at least once a week.
According to the CIA World Factbook, 94% of Spaniards are Roman Catholic. This is consistent with the Catholic Church's practice to claim all baptized as Catholic regardless of self-identification, and with the CIS poll's finding that 91% to 96% of all parents are remembered as being catholics. Despite only 80% of Spaniards self-describing as catholics, 94% report having baptized their children but only 79% being inclined to baptize new children. 90% had a religious wedding.
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