Live News From Spain As It Happens

SCIENTISTS in Spain are discussing recent research that seems to show RNA-messenger vaccines against Covid offer long-lasting immunity, even against newer and more aggressive variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Immunologist Dr Matilde Cañelles of Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) considers the study to have been carried out 'very well' and that its results are 'very useful', but she does have a few minor criticisms, including how the sample size was small and should have included participants aged over 65, to compare these with younger adults.

So far, two RNA-messenger (RNAm) vaccines have been approved and are in use in Europe, the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna – the AstraZeneca and Janssen are 'adenovirus' types, where a dormant virus is placed in a carrier fluid to stimulate the immune system into fighting it off.

The Faculty of Medicine at Washington University in San Luis, Missouri and the ICAHN School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, with teams led by immunologists Dr Rachel M. Presti and Dr Ali H. Ellebedy, have recently published the results of their research in Nature magazine, and conclude that these vaccines 'induce a robust response in germinal-centre B-cells' which 'allows the generation of solid humoral immunity'.

According to the Navarra Clinical Hospital medical dictionary, the germinal centre is a lymph organ structure where the process of 'maturing of antibody affinity' takes place – or a 'training ground' for B-cells to 'hone' their ability to recognise a virus.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A ZIP-LINE that opened in Aragón in March with the view to becoming the fastest in the world has achieved its goal – beating the long-held record by an ample margin.

When it was set up in the village of Fiscal (Huesca province) in the pre-Pyrénéen Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, the zip-line funded and run by Jorge Rabal was the steepest in Spain with a 400-metre slope and a 20% gradient, being 2,036 metres long (1.27 miles) and could reach speeds of between 130 and 160 kilometres per hour (81 to 99.4mph) as standard.

But the owner wanted it to become the fastest on earth, which meant beating the Italian zip-line that has so far reached a peak at 172 kilometres per hour (just under 107mph).

And now, a qualified instructor, with witnesses, has smashed the record by an average of 17 kilometres per hour (just over 10mph).

To get into the Guinness Book of Records, and to ensure it is not a fluke, such feats have to be successfully attempted three times and the median average taken as the absolute figure.

So although the zip-line descent reached 192 kilometres per hour (119.3mph), the actual record is now set at 189 kilometres per hour (117.4mph), since this was the middle of the three speeds achieved, the slowest being 181 kilometres per hour (112.5mph).

Rafael García, a zip-line and flying instructor from the Girolibre Aerodrome in Aínsa, Huesca province, made the three attempts wearing an all-in-one suit with minimum wind-resistance and a parachute for braking, as shown in the above photograph (from Tirolinaspirineos.com).

The zip-line cost €800,000 to set up, but Jorge Rabal was expecting to claw this back very quickly, and has not done badly at all to date: Even with the Covid-related restrictions in place at the time of its opening, the zip-line has so far been ridden by 2,500 visitors in three-and-a-half months.

Although residents in Fiscal were given a free ride before it opened officially to the public on Saturday, March 20, and some of them are likely to be among the 2,500, non-residents who whizzed down it from that weekend onwards would have paid between €33 and €38 per 'slide', meaning the entry fees taken so far total between 10% and 12.5% of the initial outlay.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IT'S NOT as though you'd ever need an excuse to head to Mérida, but as most of us find our travel wish lists grow at a much faster rate than we can either save up or find the time to check off entries, this western-Spanish city may well remain under the heading of 'oh-my-goodness-I-really-have-to-see-this' indefinitely, especially if it's an entry that you're keeping for dessert. 

But now really is the right time, because its International Classical Theatre Festival has kicked off again for the first time since before the pandemic.

If you've already missed the tempting-sounding From Bach to Radiohead concert, which took spellbound viewers on a journey through as many different musical styles and geographical locations of these from the 17th to the 21st century as it could cram into one night – covering Rossini, Iron Maiden and Paco de Lucía – and if you don't think you're going to make it there in time for today's refugee documentary film Welcome to Spain, which was premièred at the Hot Docs International Festival in Toronto, Canada, then at least this is a taster of the imaginative variety of events you can catch in Mérida over the opening weekend from next year onwards.

Plenty of other events are on the cards for the next few weeks and, even though the plays performed are in Spanish, they are typically very well-known ones that you would be able to follow even if your language skills are not yet up to catching live, moving dialogue.

If you're keen to make sure this is, indeed, the case in time for next year's festival, a good way to practice is to find a film on DVD you know backwards and inside out, switch the language into Spanish and, if necessary, put the subtitles into Spanish, too, and make heavy use of the 'pause' and 'rewind' functions. Even just five or 10 minutes a day of this will help – in fact, it's better to stop when brain-fog sets in, to ensure you spend the whole exercise concentrating and absorbing rather than letting it drift over your head.

What's on

For those who are not familiar with the Roman and Greek dramas, you could be missing out on a treat – the most famous comedy playwrights, like Plautus in the case of the first and Aristophanes for the second, are behind prolific and downright hilarious works that will have you spluttering on your coffee; very easy to read in English translation, you'll be shocked at the ideas and themes they came up with 500 years before the birth of Christ (risqué humour wasn't invented by the current living generations, after all).

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NOW that the 'State of Alarm' is over, residents being summoned for vaccines are getting younger and lower-risk, masks no longer have to be worn outside and contagion rates are dropping dramatically, Spain as a whole can finally start thinking in earnest about going away on holiday. 

Hopefully, nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, a second fiesta-free summer and the likelihood of British tourists not heading here for a while – except the Balearic Islands - or for the first three weeks in July at least – we haven't all gotten out of the habit of doing those things we used to love, like hanging out with friends in cafés and bars, going to restaurants, watching or taking part in festival parades, and taking weekend mini-breaks or full-blown vacations.

And if we have, with luck, it won't last. 

The great news is that search engines for package tours, excursions and hotel and holiday apartment rooms are starting to climb. 

Why summer is still peak holiday time for Spanish residents

In the past, most Spanish companies and the vast majority of the public sector shut down for the whole of August and, even though this is no longer practical and workers rarely get a double pay-packet that month now, things certainly do seem to slow down in the country from the end of the school year (mid-late June) until it restarts (first or second week in September) except in those areas that make most of their full year's living from tourists. Most business premises have air-conditioning these days, but where work isn't always indoors, it's generally too hot to be bothered. And too hot for your customers to be bothered with anything particularly energetic.

As a result, Spaniards are in the habit of taking their annual holidays in summer, normally all their year's leave at once (standard practice, harking back to the days of having the whole of August off), and they love a bit of sunshine, beach and pool as much as any northern European. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MASKS will cease to be compulsory from tomorrow (Saturday, June 26) outdoors, but some exceptions apply and national health authorities have attempted to clarify a number of queries that have arisen from the general public since the move was announced.

It will not be mandatory by law to carry a mask in one's handbag or pocket at all times, says minister Carolina Darías, but it will still be a legal requirement to wear one in a range of situations, so it is strongly recommended that everyone has one available to put on if they need to.

Although they are not technically required just for walking down the street, they must be worn even in open-air spaces where it is impossible, or difficult, to keep a minimum distance of 1.5 metres between people, except where these people are members of the same household.

This means fines can still be handed out for those not wearing masks in, for example, crowded shopping streets or when gathering in groups outdoors in public.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS year's San Sebastián Film Festival is set to be a game-changer and could influence the entire world of silver-screen awards: For the first time, the gender of the winners will no longer be mentioned.

Due to take place in the Basque coastal city between September 17 and 25, what will be the 69th festival will no longer see 'Golden Shells', or Conchas de Oro, and 'Silver Shells', or Conchas de Plata, presented for 'Best Actor' and Best Actress'.

Instead, one will be given for 'Best Leading Performance', and another for 'Best Supporting Performance', instead of the usual 'Best Supporting Actor' and 'Best Supporting Actress'.

This could, in effect, mean only half as many awards presented, as male and female nominees will all be lumped together.

According to festival director José Luis Rebordinos: “Gender, which is a social and political construct, will cease to be a criterium for acting distinctions.”

He points out that the new format – which Berlin Film Festival has already opted to follow this year – 'opens the door to awards for players who identify as non-binary', defined as persons who do not consider themselves to be male or female at all, or who 'feel female' or 'feel male' at different times.

Non-binary people may use gendered pronouns to describe themselves if they feel their gender is 'fluid', or changeable, but those who do not identify as one or the other typically go by the pronoun 'they' instead of 'he' or 'she'.

Rebordinos says requests have been repeatedly presented over the past few years to the USA Actors' Syndicate, the Television Academy – which is behind the Emmy Awards – and the Hollywood Academy, which runs the Oscars, to drop the gender distinctions

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POLITICIANS involved in the disputed independence referendum in Catalunya on October 1, 2017 have been formally pardoned – although in practice, they have been granted a suspended sentence and a ban on holding public office, even if elected, until their original custodial terms were due to end.

Back on the date now referred to in Spain simply as '1-O', the government in power in national Parliament was the right-wing PP, which had refused to even discuss or approach the subject of Catalunya's holding a referendum on independence, even a non-binding opinion poll.

As far as Mariano Rajoy's government was concerned, the article in the Spanish Constitution which makes any action that 'threatens the unity of Spain' illegal was the only answer they needed.

This impasse, and threats of court action if they went their own way, only incensed the independence movement more, and the then regional president Carles Puigdemont called the public to the polls. 

What happened on '1-O'

Of those who voted, 99% opted for secession, but those who abstained said the vote was illegal and they did not intend to take part – in total, around half the electorate cast their ballots in favour of independence, a wafer-thin majority which Puigdemont decided was enough to make a unilateral declaration of the region's split from Spain. 

But this declaration was not recognised by anyone outside Catalunya, and immediately led to the region's temporarily losing its devolved powers and those who had organised the referendum to be arrested.

Puigdemont and a handful of others left the country – Puigdemont himself has been living in Belgium ever since, knowing that a national arrest warrant would see him in custody the moment he set foot in Spain again, whilst former education minister Dr Clara Ponsati went back to her old job as lecturer and researcher at Edinburgh's St Andrew's University, hailed a heroine by Scottish independence supporters.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PICTURE of a woman turning up for her Covid vaccine in the Huelva-province village of Lepe has gone viral due to her unusual mode of transport – or rather, a mode that was once very typical, but has not now been seen in most parts for generations.

Several hundred people were summoned on Sunday to the vaccine point in Lepe, including a woman from the Valdepegas urbanisation who took herself to the venue in a cart drawn by mule.

A number of patients took photos of her in the vehicle queue, where everyone else was in their car.

Many were vaccinated through the windows of their cars, and others on foot after parking, and the woman with the mule was one of those who did not alight from her vehicle.

The nurse stood on the side of the cart to be able to reach her.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WEARING masks outdoors will cease to be compulsory from Saturday, June 26, meaning the next two days will be the last weekend of obligatory face-coverings in the street in a year.

They must still be worn in indoor areas – except, of course, on private property with one's own household members, and strongly recommended when meeting other friends or family at their homes – including in cars, unless travelling with members of the same household or alone.

At present, the moment a person in Spain steps out of his or her home, even in communal areas of apartment blocks, they are required by law to wear a correctly-fitted mask at all times – other than in bars and restaurants when physically eating or drinking, and should put them back on during after-dinner chats or long pauses between sips.

They will still be a legal requirement on public transport, even open-top buses, but have so far not been mandatory when taking part in rigorous sports activities, such as running or cycling, where they may inhibit breathing. 

If a person suffers from a medical condition that makes it dangerous – not just slightly uncomfortable, but genuinely painful and harmful to them – to wear a mask, they are required to get a note to that effect from their doctor and will need to show it if the police stop them, to prove their 'exemption'.

Even then, unmasked members of the public, with or without a doctor's note, are not permitted inside shops or public buildings, except at the discretion of the owners or managers where this is unavoidable and probably only when the premises are virtually empty.

Not only are any traders permitted to deny entry to people without a mask on, but they are actually expected to, and could face fines themselves if customers enter with their faces uncovered.

But now, they will at least be able to take these off in the street.

Opinions are sharply divided on whether this is a sensible decision or not. 

For those living in small towns, villages or open countryside, who have the pavement or footpath to themselves almost all the time or perhaps pass one person per 100 metres for a fleeting half-second – during which one of the two steps into the road to avoid the other – there is little to be gained from wearing a mask out of doors, as there is nothing they need to protect themselves from and nobody they need to protect.

But in big cities, especially during peak shopping times when pavement crowds are jostling, pressing and dense and it is impossible to avoid being within inches of anybody else most of the time, wearing a mask is every bit as necessary from an epidemiological point of view as it is inside a building.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MADRID and Barcelona jointly 'lost' 60,000 inhabitants in 2020, whilst the provinces of Valencia and Sevilla saw a significant rise as city-dwellers rethought their life plans during the long months of restrictions on movement and the increase in working from home. 

According to the National Statistics Institute's (INE's) Residential Variations Statistics for the whole of last year, based on padrón or local headcount census figures, the number of inhabitants who moved out of the top two largest cities in Spain, or their wider provinces, is the highest ever seen since annual figures started being collated in 1998.

This contrasts sharply with the year 2015 when a record number of residents in Spain moved into the two biggest metropolitan areas – 31,000 that year – which may have been related to a need to live in a major urban hub in order to find work, or meaningful work.

Within five years and with the country thrust almost overnight into total lockdown and everyone whose job permitted it ordered to work from home, suddenly location ceased to be an issue for many, particularly office workers, who no longer needed to be within comfortable commuting distance of their company.

Residents moving out has been seen far more in Madrid than in Barcelona – the single-province region which is home to Spain's capital and a number of large commuter towns around it lost a total of 38,240 over 2020, compared with the 21,510 who left the province of Barcelona.

And yet the province home to the country's third-largest city – and, in fact, the nation's third-most populated province – Valencia gained 3,790 residents, whilst Sevilla, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Spain, and its wider province increased their headcount by 432 in total through people previously living elsewhere in the country moving in.

In the case of Valencia, the province is large enough that residents in it can live up to 90 kilometres outside the city in any direction, and in descending order from the biggest to the smallest municipality in the country, Valencia is the first on the list with fewer than a million inhabitants. 

Also, its most densely-populated parts are within approximately 25 kilometres of the coast; huge swathes to its west are rural and very sparsely-inhabited.

To this end, it would not be difficult to infer that 'leavers' last year were in search of smaller communities, countryside or coast as a substitute for busy city streets. 

And the INE's follow-up of this migration seems to confirm this: Those who dropped off the padrón in the two main cities largely re-registered in neighbouring provinces.

Around 43.4% of those who moved out of Madrid were 'absorbed' by provinces bordering it – especially Toledo, just to the south (8,094) and Guadalajara, to its north-east (4,142), as well as the Castilla y León provinces of Ávila (1,970) and Segovia (1,300), and the Castilla-La Mancha province of Cuenca, directly to the east of Madrid (1,099).

Nearly six in 10 – 58.3% - of those who left Barcelona ended up in another Catalunya province: Tarragona, the southernmost of the region's four, became the new home for 6,154 people; Girona, directly to the north and backing onto the French border, absorbed 4,719, and Catalunya's only land-locked province, Lleida, accounted for 1,666 of the Barcelona exodus.

In the case of Lleida and the provinces surrounding Madrid, the population tends to be sparse and the territory is largely rural, with even provincial capital cities being little bigger than a typical Madrid satellite municipality; and in the case of Catalunya, the provinces targeted by the majority of the 'leavers' are home to two of Spain's popular holiday coasts, the Costa Brava and Costa Daurada.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SECONDARY school pupils including sixth-formers will be given at least their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine before the autumn term starts, president Pedro Sánchez has confirmed. 

All students who have finished primary school and are onto their ESO (pre-GCSE) cycles and in Bachillerato (A-levels) will begin their immunisation two weeks before they go back to class.

Sánchez, announcing this today (Saturday), said it was 'a decisive step' towards 'returning to long-awaited social and academic normality'.

He urges the schools community to focus on 'going forward' within the 'new normality' rather than 'going back to how things were before' – in reference to the major structural changes and flexibility forced on education by the pandemic.

As an example, during lockdown, children were taking their classes online and emailing their homework to teachers or uploading it to a web portal, and those in low-income families who could not afford computers, tablets or internet connections were given these on loan.

“The schools community has shown that educational and academic excellence is a goal within our reach in Spain,” stated Sánchez during his announcement of the pupil vaccine plan from the Moncloa Palace, the country's official presidential residence.

“In Spain, there's a joy at being alive, in living; that's clear to see in our society. We're in full swing with the vaccine roll-out, breaking record after record in the number of doses administered every day, and we're gradually recovering employment. All this has also been possible with the help of the educational community.”

Spain is 'strongly focused' on getting its life back, and its recovery 'needs to be fair and much more long-lasting', the president argues. 

This time last year, with the phased release from lockdown and 'new normality' on the horizon, Spain thought it would be able to put the Covid crisis behind it in 2021, but a second, third and then a fourth wave of contagion, starting in autumn and continuing until spring, proved a massive setback.

The vaccine roll-out has drastically reduced the number of cases and pressure on hospitals, although most of the country is currently only starting to work on vaccinating those in their 40s, with younger members of society probably not likely to get the summons until later in the summer.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NAMES of Europe's 150 best restaurants have been released – and Spain hogs half the list.

If it had achieved two more than the 74 eateries that feature, Spain could legitimately say its restaurants were the majority of the top establishments on the continent.

The prestigious platform Opinionated About Dining (OAD), founded in 2003 by Steve Plotnicki and based upon over 220,000 restaurant reviews by more than 7,000 voters, has one in the top three and several others in the top 10, plus dozens more nationwide.

'Best in Europe' is Alchemist in Copenhagen, Denmark, followed by Restaurant Frantzen in Stockholm, Sweden; third-best is in Spain, in the province of Vizcaya – the capital of which is Bilbao – the Asador de Etxebarri, run by chef Bittor Arginzoniz.

Celebrity chef Quique Dacosta – who once featured on Gordon Ramsay's Costa del Nightmares, where he taught the restaurateurs at the centre of the show about silver service on a premises with three Michelin stars – is in the top 10, and is given a special mention for dishes which 'pay tribute to beauty and to Mediterranean cuisine'.

Although Dacosta has several eateries, it is his establishment in Dénia, northern Alicante province, which was chosen – formerly known as El Poblet, after the shop-and-bar complex it sits next to, and a short distance from the nearest beach, the eponymous Restaurante Quique Dacosta is the most upmarket of his entire chain and has won countless awards, as well as topping previous 'best-in-world' lists.

Also in the province of Alicante, the restaurant L'Escaleta in the northern inland town of Cocentaina – home to just over 100 British nationals, according to the last census – has made the top 10.

Along with Quique Dacosta and L'Escaleta are the Barcelona-based trio Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas and their premises Disfrutar, the world-famous Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Vizcaya province, run by 'super-chef' Eneko Atxa; and another regular 'top-of-the-world-list' premises, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, capital of the province which is home to the Costa Brava and run by the Roca brothers.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HE EUROPEAN Commission has approved Spain's 'recovery plan' post-pandemic, meaning it is now entitled to funding from the bloc which all member States who applied in time are able to access.

Spain is due €69.5 billion between 2021 and 2026, and has pledged around 40% of this towards climate change-related investment, 28% towards the digital transition, and the bulk of the rest towards 'social cohesion'.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (pictured left) said the plans presented by Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez (pictured right) would allow the country to 'arise stronger than ever before', and praised the 'excellent cooperation' with Europe by Spanish authorities.

Sánchez, who calls the project approval 'an historic day' and the plans themselves a chance to 'build a better future', says he will call a conference with all the country's regional presidents in July to discuss the finer detail of how it will be put into practice.

'Fundamental' reworking of 2012 labour reform

In exchange for the funds, Spain is required to make a series of structural overhauls in its job market, pensions and taxation systems, among other areas.

This will involve scrapping key elements of the controversial 2012 labour reform, brought in by the previous right-wing PP government.

The reform nine years ago made it easier and cheaper for companies to fire employees, even on the grounds of ill health evidenced by medical notes after a certain percentage of absences – ostensibly, it was aimed at allowing companies under threat of complete shutdown to stay open by making a handful of redundancies without too many barriers or extra costs, on the basis that it was better for some of its employees to lose their jobs than for all of them to; but the reform also opened the door to the minority of less-scrupulous employers being able to shed staff with relative impunity and to use coercion to keep wages low and working conditions unfavourable.

Unions and various experts in economy and business criticised the reform from the start, warning it would drive down already-low salaries and make the job market more precarious and less secure than ever.

Ending the precarious nature of jobs, especially in young, newly-qualified adults, is one of the current left-wing coalition government's key aims, and now it has been told its plan to axe the fundamental parts of the 2012 reform cannot be delayed any longer: It must happen this year.

Among the areas Brussels says need an immediate restructure are the limitations the reform places on collective bargaining via unions, and changes to guarantee the rights and wellbeing of people working for sub-contracted companies.

Also, Spain's work minister Yolanda Díaz intends to reduce the number of job contract types to limit temporary employment only to cases where this is strictly necessary or in the interests of the employee as well as the firm, and wants to create a permanent mechanism similar to the temporary lay-off or 'furlough' scheme introduced during lockdown – where employees can be sent home, claim unemployment benefit without affecting their existing contributory jobseekers' allowance built up, and taken back on by the company once business improves, with their jobs guaranteed during their time off.

Brussels has highly praised the temporary lay-off, or 'ERTE' scheme, which has enabled businesses to avoid shutting down altogether and prevented mass redundancies.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE ONLY known portrait held in Spain painted by Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli is now on display in Valencia after having been loaned by the family which has owned it since 1929.

Michele Marullo Tarcaniota (1453-1500), poet, military man and humanist of Greek origin who emigrated to Florence and lived under the patronage of the powerful ruling Medici family, surrounded by major artists, writers and humanist scholars of the time, married the erudite poet Alessandra Scala.

He was a great friend of Botticelli's and they shared long, frequent intellectual discussions and debates, in the manner of the era.

When Marullo was on his way home from a trip to Volterra on April 12, 1500, on his horse in a torrential rain storm, he drowned crossing the river Cecina.

His picture shows a high level of realism and detail in features, expression and depth of feeling; exactly what the most learned artists during the Renaissance sought to achieve and studied for, and which meant their portraits – considered at the time to be the art form of the highest calibre and prestige, and the subject of lucrative commissions from the wealthy and powerful – were very valued and allowed them to make a decent living.

The portrait of Marullo appears on a fairly small tableau, of 49 x 36 centimetres (1'7” x 1'2”), showing the head and shoulders of a man dressed in black with long black hair and a black cap, against a background of ash-blue, with a sombre, severe expression, turned slightly to the left, and very dark eyes with golden flecks which illuminate them, and lips outlined very clearly and incisively.

It was bought by Valencia-based collector Francesc Cambó 92 years ago, and the owner has always called it 'the pearl' of his range of prestigious artworks, of which he had numerous.

Among other major institutions, politician and philanthropist Cambó loaned his collection, including Botticelli's Marullo portrait, to Madrid's El Prado museum and to the MNAC in Barcelona.

The Botticelli was then inherited by Francesc's daughter Helena Cambó – along with Cambó's 'philanthropic spirit', which she and her husband passed onto their own children, according to the present owner and grandson of the original buyer, Rafael Guardans Cambó. 

Rafael says his family has always been particularly fond of the Marullo portrait, but that in keeping with his grandfather's attitude, considers it his duty to allow the general public to enjoy it, too.

Doing so, and especially so that local residents can see it 'without having to travel beyond the Comunidad Valenciana', is an 'honour' for the Guardans Cambó family, says Rafael.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONAL health authorities have approved the final leg of the Covid vaccine calendar with the last three age groups set to go – although regional governments may overlap these if the need arises.

All bar two regions – Castilla y León and the Comunidad Valenciana – are now working through the 40-49 age group, and the latter is due to start on this community on June 17, beginning with those aged 49, having begun later than the rest of the country due to its high number of municipalities and heavy population density, especially along its coast.

Some, such as the Canary Islands, are making headway with those in their late 30s.

Now, the strategy drawn up by the central government in conjunction with regional leaders has included three more age groups, who will be immunised starting from the oldest to the youngest.

Regions are urged to continue to track down and contact residents in their 40s for jabs, where they have already started these, and can then move onto the 30-39 age group.

After this, those aged 20 to 29 will be vaccinated, and finally, teenagers aged 12 to 19.

These three age categories can overlap if necessary – such as if there are problems calling in all the 30-plus group, health authorities can start summoning those in their 20s in the meantime or, if a region has a higher population of teenagers than 20-somethings or 30-somethings, they can focus on those instead so as to get as many of them immunised as possible before the school term starts in September.

Regions are asked to 'prioritise' vaccination of teens aged 12 and over who would have to wait until very last because of their age but who need to be immunised as soon as possible for other reasons, such as illness, chronic health conditions that put them at greater risk, and those who need full-time care.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEXT year's NATO summit will be held in Spain – for the first time in a quarter of a century, confirms the organisation's secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg (pictured right).

Spanish president Pedro Sánchez (pictured left) attended this year's summit today (Monday) in Brussels, where he very briefly met his US counterpart Joe Biden for the first time – although they were only in each others' company for less than a minute, the time it took to walk 20 metres down the corridor, they reportedly managed to touch on a number of key issues the two countries have in common.

Also today, Sánchez learned that Stoltenberg had chosen Madrid as the host city for the 2022 date – partly because of its being the 40th anniversary of Spain's joining NATO, in 1982, and partly 'in recognition of the significant rôle' the nation plays in the organisation.

Stoltenberg said Madrid's hosting the 2022 summit would be 'an ideal opportunity' for member countries to 'focus on the challenges coming from the south', in which NATO 'has great potential'.

These 'challenges' include the current diplomatic issues with Morocco, the sovereignty of the disputed Western Sahara territory, and the reduction in France's troops deployed in the Sahel region of the Sahara desert.

“If our neighbours are stable, we're also safer,” Stoltenberg argues.

He recalled that Spain had increased its spending on Defence and has taken part in numerous NATO missions with 'very strong contributions' to peacekeeping in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter of which Spain concluded a few weeks back, bringing all its troops home.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

'QUEEN Mum' HRH Sofía has been on her hands and knees filling up bin-bags again – this time as part of a nationwide clean-up summons organised by SEO BirdLife's Libera project and major recycling firm Ecoembes.

Volunteers all over Spain were urged to give approximately two hours of their time on Saturday morning as part of a campaign for everyone to clear up one square metre of rubbish from an area of nature.

In practice, those who take part in these regular clear-up days tend to get far more than a square metre free from litter – Queen Sofía especially, given that she is frequently on the volunteer team.

Last year, in September, she joined in a mass clean-up on a Málaga beach, and on Saturday, got stuck in with the group working in the Soto de las Juntas nature reserve area in Madrid.

Over 11,000 people took part across the country at the weekend, tackling 1,100 rural areas – from National Parks such as the Guadarrama in Madrid and the Monfragüe near Plasencia in the Extremadura province of Cáceres, through to local nature reserves such as the Arribas del Duero in the province of Salamanca, the Cap de Creus on the Costa Brava, and the Marjal, or huge salt marshes in Pego, which straddle the borders of the provinces of Alicante and Valencia.

Queen Sofía is a patron of SEO BirdLife, and tries to join in their volunteer projects as much as possible, showing no signs of wanting to take a back seat despite her 82-and-a-half years of age.

The mother of the current reigning monarch King Felipe VI was photographed with rubber gloves, a large yellow bin-bag and wearing a mask, scooping up litter and junk by hand.

SEO BirdLife director Miguel López says the charity has succeeded in raising awareness over the past five years of the huge problem rubbish in nature zones poses – a problem which, he says, 'should never have had to have arisen'.

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ALMOST anyone not heading for Spain this summer would be a lot happier if they were in it, and the town in question is probably academic – and although those who already live here year-round are entitled to be miserable now and again, because that's only human, the bright sunshine and warm weather mean it is arguably difficult not to be happy-ish at least part of the time during a Spanish summer. 

But six towns have been named the 'happiest' – not through self-report surveys or calculating figures relating to lifestyle factors, but through Artificial Intelligence.

At this point, you're probably speculating as to which they could be. Suitable candidates could be anything with 'Alegre' in the name, as this means 'happy' – in Torrevieja, southern Alicante province, the waterfront esplanade is called the Paseo Vistalegre, which means 'happy-view boulevard'; a bit further north, just above Alicante city itself, is Villajoyosa or, in valenciano, La Vila Joiosa and, whichever of the two languages you write it in, translates literally as 'Joyous Town'. Given that it's the cradle of the nationally-acclaimed brand of chocolate, Valor, and to a museum showcasing it, Villajoyosa certainly lives up to its name.

How does AI define 'happy'?

Basically, LookFantastic's computer checked out people's faces on their Instagram selfies. Maybe this isn't a scientific method, but if you're radiating glee on your social media snaps, you're probably feeling pretty good or, if you aren't, you've done well to be able to hide it when faced with the all-seeing eye of AI.

SPAIN'S president Pedro Sánchez will finally meet his US counterpart in person on Monday (June 14) when they both travel to Brussels, which will be the first time a top representative has sat and talked with a leader of the North American country face to face in exactly three years.

Last time was in June 2018, when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended the White House, when Donald Trump was in power, and a Spanish and US president have not met in person since September 26, 2017 when the former country's then leader, Mariano Rajoy, travelled to Washington DC.

United States leaders have not been to Spain for five years – Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle were the most recent, in July 2016, meeting HRHs Felipe and Letizia, president Rajoy and the then leaders of the key opposition parties, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE, or socialists), Albert Rivera (centre-right Ciudadanos) and Pablo Iglesias (left-wing Podemos).

The Obamas also had two official State visits at the White House from Spain – HRHs Felipe and Letizia in September 2015, their Royal trip to the USA as King and Queen rather than as Prince and Princess of Asturias, and Mariano Rajoy in January 2014.

As yet, due to the pandemic, Pedro Sánchez (pictured right) has not been able to meet with the USA's 46th president Joe Biden (pictured left, with Kamala Harris) in the nearly eight months since the latter won the elections and the five months since he took up office, but the beginning of next week will give them a chance to briefly get to know each other and chat.

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EVERY single one of Spain's 19 regions is now out of 'extreme risk' for Covid, and four of them are considered practically 'back to normal' as their case numbers are negligible.

These data, released on Wednesday evening, showed that the national incidence was 111.91 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, or 0.11% of the population.

Madrid was the last of the 15 mainland and four offshore regions to lose its 'extreme risk' classification, with all the others having ditched this dubious label some time ago – many of them, several months back.

This means normal levels of intensive care occupation – rates seen before the pandemic – have been reported in most regions, and even in those where numbers are higher than usual, the level of pressure is manageable.

The north-African coastal enclave of Ceuta, directly across the water from Gibraltar, and the Comunidad Valenciana on the east coast of the mainland were the first regions to report that they were almost back to normal, followed swiftly by the Balearic Islands, and now, the north-western region of Galicia.

All four currently show a rate of fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, or less than 0.05% of their population.

In the Comunidad Valenciana, only the biggest cities are showing numbers of Covid cases in three figures, the biggest towns range from approximately 10 to 50, a majority of medium-sized towns are showing single figures – several of these having had no cases at all for weeks – and the overwhelming majority of villages have been Covid-free for around two months.

This is despite the region being slightly behind the majority of the others in terms of vaccination, still working through those in their 50s and not due to start on the 40-somethings for another 10 days or so – partly due to its being one of the most densely-populated regions outside those with the two largest cities.

In the 16 months since the first Covid-19 cases were being detected in almost every region in Spain, a total of 3,715,454 have been reported – if each patient only contracted the virus once, it means 7.9% of the population have been affected, although in the past year, an average of 60-75% have been asymptomatic.

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A PERFECTLY-INTACT piece of a sauropod spine dating back around 145 million years has been unearthed in the province of Teruel – and even though it is five metres (16'6”) long, it is only a small section of the entire backbone.

The fossil discovered near the village of Camarillas – which is known to be a hotbed of dinosaur remains – is made up of 15 vertebrae, and this huge articulated string of bones is only the creature's neck.

In fact, as yet, other than being identified as a giant sauropod, the exact species has not been determined and may even be one not yet documented.

Palaeontologists from Zaragoza University's 'Aragosaurus-IUCA' unit, along with the Miquel Crusafont Catalunya Palaeontology Institute (ICP), jointly led by post-PhD researcher Dr Diego Castanera and Zaragoza historian José Ignacio Canudo, made up the excavation team which found the massive piece of ancient reptile anatomy.

Dr Castanera says each vertebra is at least 30 centimetres (a foot) long and a metre (3'3”) high and, subject to alternative information arising whilst restoring the skeleton, it is thought the original dinosaur may have been over 25 metres (82'6”) long.

This means that as well as being one of the best-preserved remains discovered in recent history, it could have belonged to the biggest dinosaur known to walk the earth – or, at least, the part of the earth that is now the continent of Europe.

Also, the sheer size of the fossil meant extracting it was an extremely complex operation.

They had to pour liquid plaster of Paris into the dig around the vertebrae to cushion them, and the structure had to be split into two to lift out as it was too heavy to do so otherwise without mechanical means that would have presented a major risk of damage to it. 

After this, the team had to build an iron frame to fashion a giant cardboard box around, which they lowered the neck-bone into, packed with polystyrene loops for protection.

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SPAIN'S government has announced a €5 billion investment in tackling unemployment in young adults, and legal changes that mean temporary job contracts can only be issued where a non-permanent position can be 'justified'.

Work minister Yolanda Díaz (Unidas Podemos) has called for companies to engage with the government's quest to get young people into the job market and building up a career.

“We cannot keep having young adults on salaries of €436 a month,” she argues. 

“It gives a very poor impression of our country, our national culture, and our companies.”

With the funding, a micro-credit programme and free legal and financial advice will help young people who wish to do so to start their own businesses, and Sra Díaz (fifth picture) calls it 'the greatest investment since the Transition to democracy' in 'tackling one of the key problems in this country'.

The umbrella project is called the Plan de Garantía Juvenil Plus ('Youth Guarantee Plus Plan'), but has many different sub-sections, and will be rolled out over the next six years, financed by the European Social Fund.

“We need our young adults' talent in the workplace”

Sra Díaz warns that unemployment in the under-25s, particularly, is 'a huge problem in our in-tray', although young adults out of work the scheme will target are likely to be aged up to 30 or 35.

Joblessness in the young in Spain varies drastically according to region, but the national figure is over 39% - the highest in the Eurozone.

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SEVEN regions are now starting to issue 'Covid passports' showing the holder has been vaccinated, is immune through having had the virus, or has a negative test result.

Spain has been included now on the European Union's list of countries issuing the so-called 'green passport' – at the beginning of today (Monday), its status was showing as 'ready', but this has changed to 'in effect' after the ministry of health made contact with Brussels.

Several thousand of these cards have been requested today alone, and although the national health authority has started the transactions for sending them out via its own website, the responsibility for issuing them lies with regional governments.

So far, the Comunidad Valenciana – the three east-coast provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón – the southern region of Andalucía, and in the north, Galicia, Aragón and Navarra have just started issuing 'Covid passports', whilst Extremadura, in the west, has already handed over 1,297 of them and Castilla y León, north of the centre, is up to 8,682 'passports'.

The national health ministry has received a further 60 applications for these via its website, mainly from regions that have not started printing them directly.

Director-General of 'digital health', Alfredo González, says he is 'confident' that the 'majority' of region will start to produce them over the course of this week.

He says all of them should be doing so in time for July 1, when these become compulsory for cross-border travel.

Although it is still a pilot scheme for the rest of this month, the documents issued pre-July will still be valid from the start and continue to be so after they become mandatory.

Spain is now country number nine to join the 'green passport' scheme – it was seven at the start of the day, but Spain and Lithuania were added to the 'in effect' list before the evening.

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AMBITIOUS plans are afoot to halt the rural exodus and prevent huge swathes of Spain from becoming uninhabited as their existing populations grow older and those of working age leave - around €10 billion of the country's European Union development funds will be ploughed into saving the countryside.

'Depopulation' is increasing rapidly in inland parts a long way from large towns and cities as they become trapped in an unbreakable circle: Low inhabitant numbers, mostly retired and many elderly, few young adults and few or no children mean there is little call for 'modern' facilities, schools, long-distance transport links or job opportunities, and companies – including internet and mobile phone service providers – are not willing to invest in these areas as their minimal customer base would automatically be loss-making; but the lack of these facilities means young adults and those of child-bearing age cannot feasibly live there.

Despite last year's lockdown making city-dwellers and those in flats or townhouses without terraces start to yearn for outside spaces of their own, and the rise in home-working due to the pandemic meaning the longed-for countryside life of many seem more of a reality as being close to the office ceased to dictate where they set up home, without practical features such as schools for their children and good, fast internet, this apparently obvious solution continues to prove largely unworkable.

Rural campaign group Teruel Existe, which sought to remind the powers that be in the capital that the sparsely-populated province of Teruel (Aragón) did in fact exist and deserve consideration, became a political party and, for the first time in Spain's history, gained a seat in Parliament after the November 2019 elections. 

Its MP, Tomás Guitarte, has been able to make his voice heard where it matters, and a nationwide string of groups along the lines of Teruel Existe have banded together to create strength in numbers, calling itself España Vaciada ('Emptied Spain').

Guitarte stresses that 'time is running out' for the rural vastness which is losing inhabitants hand over fist, and that if 'in a year or two' no action is taken, 'many villages will literally disappear'.

This has already happened over the past 50 years or so: Villages in provinces such as Teruel and Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha) ended up being inhabited by just one family, their headcount dwindling to single figures, and eventually leaving or dying out, with only ghost towns and empty houses left behind.

Also for the first time in Spain's political history, a comprehensive plan with a deadline and funding has been created: A total of 130 measures, split into 10 major areas, have been penned and, backed by the promised €10bn in EU funds, seeks to 'guarantee equality' for Spain's least-occupied parts.

Guitarte, and España Vaciada's leader Antonio Saz, are both said to be pleased so far with what national president Pedro Sánchez has pledged to start putting in place 'within a very, very short time'.

Tax 'privileges', and 'compensation' payments from 'net pollution producers'

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THREE more regions in Spain are about to start vaccinating the under-50s now that at least 70% of the 50-59 age group in their health service catchment areas have had one or both doses.

Galicia starts today on residents aged 40-49 inclusive, whilst Navarra will begin tomorrow (Monday, June 7) on those aged 51, 50 and 49.

The Basque Country has announced that if, in the coming week, the expected number of doses ordered arrives, it will begin by calling everyone aged 49 and then progressively work down the age scale.

Many regions are already getting through the 40-somethings at a good pace: The city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern Moroccan coast, began with this age group on May 19, and since then, the Canary Islands, Murcia Region, Balearic Islands, Aragón, Asturias, La Rioja, Cantabria and Castilla-La Mancha have begun, some towards the end of May and some from this week, the first week in June.

Gran Canaria and Tenerife were among the latter, starting on June 1, although the smaller Canarian islands of Lanzarote and El Hierro have already administered at least the first dose to their 39-year-olds and are now immunising residents aged 38.

Castilla-La Mancha has announced it will start vaccinating its residents aged 30-39 inclusive from the last week in June, in descending order of age, meaning the only people living in the central region who have not had any doses at all by July will be children, teenagers and those in their 20s.

At present, Castilla y León has not given a date as to when the under-50s will be immunised, as it wants to ensure everyone over this age has been fully vaccinated first.

Andalucía has just started vaccinating its 49-year-olds – and a few areas with a low population density have started on those a year or two younger – and plan to begin immunising residents aged 46, 47 and 48 this coming week.

The southern region says...

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OVER 126,000 residents in Spain acquired citizenship last year – a rise of 27.5% and the highest figure seen since 2016's record of 151,000.

During the three years after that, numbers of people taking Spanish nationality had steadily declined, at one point reaching an all-time low of just under 66,500.

But 2020 saw a spike in citizenship applications being granted – despite its being a year when offices were closed to the public and life in general was on hold.

The vast majority of those who got their Spanish passports in 2020 were Moroccan, a total of 28,258, followed by 9,010 Colombians and 8,328 Ecuadorians.

In the latter two cases, applicants would only have needed to accredit two years of permanent legal residence in Spain, the minimum required for citizens of the western Mediterranean nation's former colonies and Portugal; the Moroccan applicants, like those from any other country not part of the one-time Spanish Empire or its western neighbour, would have had to have been legally resident for at least 10 years.

Immediate Spanish citizenship is granted in a handful of cases, mostly as historic redress or gratitude: Direct descendants of the Sephardic Jews thrown out of Spain by the Inquisition in the late 15th century are one of these, and a high number of these descendants are based in Israel and Turkey; and the nearest surviving first-degree family members of any of the volunteers who served as part of the International Brigades to help fight fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and who come from over 50 countries, including the UK and even nations under fascist rule themselves at the time where their citizens opposed the régime.

In these cases, Spanish nationality is granted as an 'honorary' measure and can coexist with any other citizenship the holder has, even where dual or multiple nationality is not otherwise permitted by law.

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SEVERAL of Spain's regions have launched discount passes offering sizeable price reductions for 'staycations' in a bid to reboot the tourism industry this summer.

Anyone resident in Spain who travels to the land-locked north-eastern region of Aragón and stays at least two nights in any of its three provinces – Zaragoza, Teruel and Huesca – can take advantage of discounts on bookings and activities of up to €300.

Accommodation must be listed on the Aragón Tourism Register, and leisure activities must be run by what is considered a 'tourism company', but anything 'official' will automatically be on the register in any case, such as hotels.

It may not extend to ski resorts, as the discount scheme may well end too early – initially it will run until July 15 and, if there is a budget for it, from September 1 to December 20; if the latter is the case, the promotion may well be in time for early-winter ski breaks.

Andalucía already had a 'tourist pass' in place, and has revived it for another year for anyone who stays in the southern region for at least two nights in accommodation bearing the kitemark 'Andalucía Segura', or 'Safe Andalucía' – on sight of the paid bill for the hotel, apartment complex or travel agency, the holidaymaker will be refunded up to 25% of accommodation costs, to a maximum of €200; this can rise to up to 50% for anyone who has a registered disability of at least 33% or who has not earned enough in the last year to be eligible to pay tax.

For stays of four nights or more, up to 50% will be reimbursed, to a maximum of €500, where the trip has been booked through an agency and the holidaymaker is aged over 65 or under 25.

The Balearic Islands has announced discounts of up to €100 for residents in the region who visit a different island from the one they live on and stay for at least two nights between mid-June and mid-November, but it does not cover the nights of June 23 and 27, which are bank holidays there.

Discounts in Castilla-La Mancha vary from €12 per room per night in hostels or one-star hotels and guest houses, to €30 per room per night for four- and five-star hotels, and €20 per room per night for two- and three-star hotels, any time until September.

The Greater Madrid region – which encompasses the towns and villages close to the capital as well as the city itself – gives a 'tourist pass' to anyone who requests it upon arrival, valid at any time during the month of travel but only running for 10 days from when it is downloaded or validated.

Up to €600 off the cost of overnight stays in tourism accommodation per person – starting with a minimum of one night – and money off services such as health and wellbeing, food, guided tours, sports activities and excursions or visits in general can be obtained.

Those who want to get up to 70% off the cost of food, excursions and sports activities up to a maximum of €600 in the east-coast region of the Comunidad Valenciana will have to move quickly, since the scheme ends on June 15; as yet, it has not been confirmed whether it will be renewed for a while longer.

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A DONATION of 15 million vaccines and €50 million will be made via the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s COVAX programme, a community initiative seeking help from the planet's richest nations to guarantee immunisation for developing countries, according to Spain's president Pedro Sánchez.

This is in addition to the 7.5 million vaccines Spain has already promised Latin America.

During the virtual 'Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment' summit on vaccination and the fight against the pandemic, Sánchez stressed that 'only through solidarity can we overcome the crisis'.

He said Spain has so far contributed around €180m to the international aid programme to help stop Covid-19 in the developing and third world.

Reiterating that the first world would only be safe when the third world also was, and that 'none of us are safe until all of us are', the national leader says Spain 'firmly supports' the European Union's mechanisms for sharing vaccines with countries which do not have the funds to order in enough doses for their entire population.

He is also in favour of 'more flexible' approaches to vaccine patents, since these – according to Doctors Without Borders, which is campaigning hard for them to be scrapped – would prevent their universal access worldwide.

Sánchez called for patents to be 'relaxed' in order to 'increase and improve manufacturing and distribution'.

Spain's National Research Council (CSIC), which most of the top scientists based in the country belong to or have links with, also backs the WHO's initiative of an 'open licence' for creating new diagnostic tests.

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CHANGES to electricity tariffs have come into force from today (Tuesday, June 1) making it cheaper to use appliances in the early hours of the morning and more expensive in the middle of the day.

Using power at peak times will come in considerably more expensive than now, but at off-peak times, up to 95% less.

During 'flat rate' hours, charges will be the same as they are now.

The three price slots will only benefit customers who do not already have a 'time discrimination' contract and who stick to them as much as possible – those with a 'timed' tariff will see a small increase in their bills, typically around €2 a month.

Those who will benefit the most are households and business premises with a power level of between 10-15kW, although the vast majority of customers fall within this category.

For the average consumer, with a 2.0A tariff and 4.6kW of power and who uses around 3,500kW (3.5mW) per year, the saving will be around €21 annually; for those with a 'time discrimination' contract on the same power level, the changes will bring an increase of around €34 a year.

The changes will apply to all consumers, whether their contract is directly with the electricity board, Iberdrola, or through an independent distributor on the open market.

According to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), the standing charge for the power level will reduce, but the price of power per unit will rise in general, meaning it will be up to the consumer to watch what appliances they use and at what time of the day. 

As a result, the cost of electricity bills will be far more in the customer's hands than ever before – until now, only around 30% of what consumers paid related to actual power used, with the rest being standing charges and taxes, meaning there has never been any real incentive to try to save electricity.

Reminiscent of the days when people would avoid making phone calls before a certain time in the evening so as not to pay 'peak-time' prices, those trying to watch their expenses should steer clear of using electricity between 10.00 and 14.00 or between 18.00 and 22.00, as this is when the cost soars.

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CURFEWS imposed on the general population in a bid to contain the pandemic during its worst months will be lifted from June 7, and have already been dropped in some regions.

The last to axe their ban on being outside the home at night are the Balearic Islands and the Comunidad Valenciana, both of which imposed a prohibition on movement from 22.00 at the end of October 2020.

In the three eastern mainland provinces, the curfew has gradually been extended to midnight and, from May 24 until June 6 inclusive, residents can be out of the house until as late as 01.00, but still – as has been the case for around seven months – cannot be out before 06.00 in the morning.

The 06.00 morning curfew has also been in place in the Balearic Islands for the same length of time.

All regions adopted a compulsory curfew when the 'State of Alarm' was announced on October 25, for the second time since the start of the pandemic, and which they were permitted to set starting from between 22.00 and midnight to between 05.00 and 07.00.

Castilla y León wanted to bring its curfew forward to 20.00, but was refused permission.

Valencia and the Balearics were among the strictest with a 22.00-to-06.00 curfew, and since the end of the 'State of Alarm' on May 9, most regions have been gradually lifting theirs, with only these two still having the time restriction in place.

It will also mean no compulsory closing times for shops, bars or other 'non-essential' commercial premises, other than those already in place by law in pre-pandemic times.

Some restrictions may continue, such as the current limit of 50% of the maximum safe numbers of customers in bars and restaurants, and shops may be encouraged to continue with their existing limits – stated on the entrance door and based upon being able to keep a minimum of two metres between persons. 

Public events could be limited in numbers for a while yet, although these crowd caps have been relaxed slightly – in the Comunidad Valenciana, a maximum of 1,000 people indoors or 3,000 outside has been imposed until at least June 7.

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SPAIN'S richest, poorest, oldest, youngest, most densely-populated and most actively-employed towns and cities have been revealed – the National Statistics Institute (INE) has provided a snapshot of life in over 400 municipalities of 20,000 or more inhabitants, in figures.

Torrevieja, in the south of the province of Alicante, has the most foreign-born residents, at 43.8% of its headcount, whilst in the same province but towards the north, Benidorm has the most one-family households, at 39.1%.

Usually topping the list of Spain's wealthiest towns, Pozuelo de Alarcón, in the Greater Madrid region – home to celebrities, footballers and politicians and top-of-the-range, gated urbanisations – shows the highest annual after-tax income per head, the most frequent averaging at €28,326, or €2,360.50 a month.

It also has the lowest unemployment in the country, at 6.45% and, as proof that financial comfort and job security is conducive to long-term health, the highest life expectancy in Spain at 86 years and 10-and-a-half weeks – which suggests women's life expectancy in Pozuelo is probably nearly 90, given that the difference between sexes is typically about four years; the approximate range would be about 84 for men and 88 for women, based upon the figure for residents across the board.

At the opposite end of the scale, the town of Linares in the land-locked Andalucía province of Jaén has the highest unemployment, at 32.4%, and the coastal town of Níjar in the province of Almería, also in Andalucía, has the lowest net annual income per head at €7,307, or just €609 a month.

Despite Pozuelo de Alarcón's having the longest life expectancy and the east and south coast and islands being some of the most popular choices for northern Europeans seeking to retire in the sun, the town with the largest proportion of its residents being of pension age – over 65 – is Ferrol, on the coast of the province of A Coruña in Spain's far north-western region of Galicia.

The birth rate in Spain has long been in free-fall and the country has one of Europe's highest average ages for first-time mums – around 33, although in practice, seven in 10 women aged over 35 do not have children even if they would like to, and one in five first-time mothers is over 40 – but the city of Melilla, directly due south of the province of Almería on the northern African coast, is where the most children are born: 2.17 on average per woman.

This means it is fairly logical that Melilla is where the largest slice of the population is aged 14 or under, at 23.1% of the total.

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