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Catalonia> General Information > Introduction
 
 
 

Catalonia is a geographically small country, but with a great history that stretches back more than a thousand years, with its own culture and language that have shaped its personality. It occupies an area of 31,930 square kilometres, slightly smaller than the Netherlands and slightly bigger than Belgium, and has a population of six million people.

Platja de Formentera (JG) Poblet Diables Salines de Formentera (JG)

On the east it is bounded by the Mediterranean sea, on the north by France and Andorra, and on the west and the south by the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Aragon and Valencia. This strategic position has led to the forging of very close links with the rest of the Mediterranean countries and with continental Europe.

Its relief is very varied, with plains alternating with mountain ranges, and hence possesses a great diversity of habitats and considerable climatic variations.

Its history and language and its specific cultural, political and legal tradition have shaped the personality of the country and its people. At the present day, it forms an Autonomous Community within Spain, and has its own governing body, the Generalitat.

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and one of the great Mediterranean cities. With its surrounding metropolitan area, it accounts for almost half the population.

Superimposed on it is the state-level administrative division into provinces (Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona) and the Catalan administrative division into 41 comarques , or districts. The Catalan districts, which vary immensely in character and population density, and whose boundaries are set by geographical and historical criteria, are generally centred on a town that acts as the service centre, and each has its district council.

Catalonia is a country with limited natural resources which owes its prosperity to its strategic position. The primary sector is now almost anecdotal - it accounts for barely 3% of the work-force - while the strong points of the secondary sector are automobile manufacture and accessories and chemicals, although the long tradition in textiles is still maintained and there is ever-greater investment in electrical goods and computer-related equipment. The graphics and publishing industry plays a vital role in the Catalan economy, as does construction, the growth of which is directly related to tourist development.

It is the tertiary sector, however, that generates the greater part of the GDP employment, notably tourism and related services, as well as a large number of companies related with publicity, the exploitation of the new technologies and the creation of Internet content.

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