During the Franco era, housing shortages and standards were a major problem. In 1961 the government passed a National Housing Plan, which resulted in the construction of millions of homes over the next two decades. However, many of these homes were geared to affluent middle-class families; thus, by the 1980s, housing shortages were severe and conditions were still considered poor. After the election of the socialist government in 1982, significant resources were directed at housing. However, population growth continued to outstrip housing construction, and at the beginning of the 21st century many considered housing to be the country’s most pressing social problem. That perception, coupled with low interest rates and an infusion of foreign investment capital, fueled a construction boom that added millions of jobs to the Spanish economy. When the real-estate and construction bubble popped in 2009, thousands of developers went under, and Spain’s banks were saddled with more than €180 billion (about $225 billion) in toxic assets.

More than three-fourths of housing stock is owner-occupied. House types vary from region to region, but by and large multistory dwellings are characteristic of mountain and pastoral districts, while single-story or low houses with courtyards arranged in different ways according to the local economy are typical of the lowlands. Land reform, industrialization, and depopulation have significantly changed the character of many rural districts. In rural areas in particular, the housing stock is relatively old, with more than half of all units built prior to 1960. Increasingly population concentration in urban areas created difficult housing conditions and resulted in the rapid increase in housing prices, exacerbating problems for individuals with low incomes. These prices peaked in 2007–08, and the subsequent housing bust saw home values drop by as much as 75 percent. Because this adjustment had catastrophic effects on the rest of the economy, few were able to take advantage of the lowered prices, and much of the excess housing stock sat empty.

Education

Spain’s first comprehensive public education plan was contained in the Moyano Law of 1857. It remained basically unchanged until 1970, when the General Law on Education was passed. Since then many other education reforms have taken place.

The school system has a number of levels: preschool (to age 6), primary school for ages 6 or 7 to 11, secondary school for ages 12 to 16 (which includes technical and vocational schools), baccalaureate school for ages 17 and 18, and university. Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16. Literacy exceeds 95 percent of the population.

Historically, the state and the Roman Catholic Church have clashed over education. Spain still has a large private education sector, almost all of which is Catholic, but since the 1960s the predominance of the state has been clearly established, especially in secondary education. In the 1980s the Catholic schools, most of which received substantial subsidies from the state, were subjected to closer government control, and religious education was removed as an obligatory subject. With regional autonomy, control over education in some parts of the country was transferred from the central to regional governments. As a result, the study of Catalan, Galician, and Euskera became obligatory in their respective regions, whereas in the past these languages had not been taught at all.

After 1960 there was a dramatic increase in the availability of schooling at all levels. The change was greatest with regard to universities. Until 1960 there were only 12 universities in the country, and higher education was the privilege of a very small elite. By the end of the 20th century, there were more than 60 public and private universities, some of which were operated by the Catholic church. Access to a university education became more democratic as well: in the 1980s almost half of Spain’s university students had parents who had received no more than an elementary school education. By the early 21st century more than two-thirds of Spain’s college-age population was attending a university. Among the largest and most-prestigious universities in Spain are the Complutense University of Madrid (founded 1508), the University of Barcelona (1450), the University of Granada (1526), the University of Sevilla (1502), the University of Salamanca (1218), the University of Valencia (1499), and the University of the Basque Country (1968).

Cultural milieu

As in much of western Europe, the culture of Spain was marked decisively by the period of Roman rule. In language, religion, even architectural traditions, the Romans left a lasting legacy. However, the subsequent course of Spanish history added elements to the country’s cultural development that were missing or much weaker in other European countries. The most important differences stem from the Arabic-speaking Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa who invaded Spain in 711 ce and dominated much of the country for almost 800 years. The Muslim cultural influence was very strong, especially in the area of language; indeed, the Spanish language has taken more words from Arabic than from any other source except Latin. Through contact with Muslims, Christian Europe was able to recover much of the cultural and intellectual heritage of Classical antiquity. It also gained access to many scientific advances made by Muslims. Spain’s cultural mix was further enriched by the presence of a large and influential Jewish population, and medieval Spain witnessed one of the periods of greatest cultural achievement in Jewish history.

During the early modern and modern periods, Spain’s culture was fairly homogeneous. The one significant exception was the presence and persistence of early languages other than Castilian in some parts of the country. Two of these, Catalan and Galician (Gallego), developed significant literary traditions during the Middle Ages. From the 16th century on, however, they lost ground to Castilian and increasingly became limited to everyday use, especially among the peasantry. This had always been the case with the third language, Euskera (Basque), which never had a significant literary tradition.

Beginning in the 19th century, all three languages enjoyed a revival. In the 20th century the Franco regime prohibited the public use of languages other than Castilian, but this did not lead to their disappearance. Instead, the use of these languages, both in daily life and in high culture, increased greatly when they became the official languages in the autonomous regions established under the constitution of 1978. They are now taught in the schools and are used in the press and on television and radio.

For much of its history, and especially after the Reconquista was completed in 1492, Spain has been strongly identified with the Roman Catholic Church. To a large extent this identification and the virtual religious monopoly that the church has enjoyed since the 16th century have been artificially imposed. Members of the two large religious minorities were forced to convert or leave the country: the Jews in 1492 and the Muslims in 1502. From 1478 until 1834 religious uniformity was enforced by the church court, the Inquisition.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the Roman Catholic Church sought to have, and for much of that time succeeded in having, the government declare Roman Catholicism as the state religion, even though a large part of the population was nonpracticing or even anticlerical. The church also encouraged the government to limit or even prohibit the practice of other faiths. State support for the Catholic church was strongest during the Franco regime, but since 1978 Spain has had no official religion. Today Spaniards enjoy complete freedom of religion, although Roman Catholicism remains an important cultural influence. Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, the expression of cultural diversity is easier than it was for at least 500 years. Ironically, this came at the same time that Spain became increasingly drawn into a homogeneous global culture.