Spain

Spain: strong, sustained growth, 1980–2025

Spain's EU accession in 1986 and a construction-led boom into the 2000s gave way to a severe property and banking crash after 2008, followed by a slow, painful recovery. Between 1980 and 2025, Spain's GDP per capita grew from $6,204 to $38,627 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 2.2% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 2.9 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 3.9% to 2.7% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 60.3% to 68.4% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 75.3 to 83.9 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 61.0% to 93.8%, while the urban population share grew from 71.5% to 80.5%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 5.68 to 4.51 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 34.5 to 33.4; the poverty headcount ratio increased from 0.8% to 0.8%.