The parliament in data: how Spain has changed since July 2023
The 29 November election closes the parliament that began with the July 2023 general election. Since then unemployment has fallen from 12.2% to 10.5%, although it is still the highest in the EU; GDP has grown 6.4%, a third of it from population growth; and the deficit has fallen to 2.4% of GDP, mostly in 2025 thanks to the lower cost of the measures for the energy crisis and the DANA floods, according to AIReF.
Spain and Europe
Spain has grown faster than the European average and has closed some of the gap on unemployment and debt, but it is still far from the average on both.
In 2023, the year of the last general election, Spain's unemployment rate was 12.2%, the highest of the 27 EU countries and double the European average (6.1%). By 2025 it had fallen to 10.5%, while the EU average stayed at 6.0%. The gap has narrowed from 6.1 to 4.5 points, but Spain is still in first place. It is followed by Finland (9.7%), where unemployment has risen, and Greece (8.9%), where it has fallen.
Spain's unemployment rate falls from 12.2% to 10.5% between 2023 and 2025, but it is still the highest in the EU
Unemployment rate aged 15 to 74, 2025, as % of the labour force. EU average: 6.0%
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Between 2023 and 2025, Spain's GDP grew 6.4% adjusted for inflation, more than double the EU average (2.8%) and the eighth highest growth of the 27. But its population has also grown more: 2.1%, the sixth largest rise in the EU, against an average of 0.5%. Per person, GDP rose 4.2%, eleventh in the EU, against an average of 2.2%. Roughly a third of total growth is because there are more people.
Spain's GDP grows 6.4% between 2023 and 2025, 8th of 27 EU countries; per person, 4.2%, 11th
Real GDP growth (adjusted for inflation) between 2023 and 2025, in %. EU average: 2.8% (2.2% per person)
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Public debt fell from 105.2% to 100.7% of GDP between 2023 and 2025, while the EU average rose from 80.5% to 81.7%. Spain is the fifth most indebted country, behind Greece, Italy, France and Belgium. A falling ratio does not mean less money is owed: debt in euros has kept growing, but less than nominal GDP, which rises with growth and with prices.
Public debt falls from 105.2% to 100.7% of GDP between 2023 and 2025; in the EU it goes from 80.5% to 81.7%
General government debt, 2025, as % of GDP. Spain's is the 5th highest of 27
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Spain from within
Unemployment has fallen most where it was highest, and a larger share of the working-age population is in work in almost every region.
In the last year (from the third quarter of 2025 to the second of 2026), Spain's average unemployment rate was 10.3%, against 12.2% in 2023. It has fallen in all 17 regions, and most where it was highest: by 4 points in Extremadura; 3.5 in Andalusia and the Canary Islands; and 3.2 in Asturias. Least in the Basque Country (0.3) and Aragon (0.4), which already started from low rates.
So the regions have converged. In 2023, there were 10.5 points between the region with the most unemployment (Andalusia, 18.2%) and the one with the least (the Basque Country, 7.7%). In the last year, there are 7.5 between Andalusia (14.8%) and Cantabria (7.3%). The gap is still large: Andalusia has twice Cantabria's unemployment.
Unemployment falls most where it was highest: the gap between the region with the most unemployment and the one with the least narrows from 10.5 to 7.5 points
Unemployment rate, average of the four quarters from Q3 2025 to Q2 2026, in %. Spain: 10.3%
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Are jobs being created only because there are more people? Spain had an average of 22.5 million people in work in the last year, 1.3 million more than in 2023 (6.1%). Part of that rise is because the population is growing. To strip that out, the employment rate measures what share of the population works. Among people aged 25 to 54, the ages at which most people work, the rate has gone from 78.0% to 80.0%.
It has risen in 15 of the 17 regions. The largest rise is in Asturias (5.8 points). In the Basque Country it has fallen half a point and in Aragon it has barely changed, both with high rates (83.2%). The highest is Madrid's (84.9%) and the lowest Andalusia's (75.0%). The EPA (Labour Force Survey) is a survey: in the less populated regions it has a larger margin of error and small differences are not significant.
A larger share of people aged 25 to 54 are in work in 15 of the 17 regions: in Spain, 80.0%, 2.0 points more than in 2023
Employment rate aged 25 to 54, average of the four quarters from Q3 2025 to Q2 2026, in %
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See also: Jobs: the labour reform, three years on
Spain over time
Since 2019, half of GDP growth has come from a larger population. Wages have recovered the purchasing power lost in 2022, and the deficit has fallen on higher revenue.
An economy can grow because more people are working and spending or because each person produces more. Between 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and 2025, Spain's GDP grew 10.0%. Population rose 4.8% and GDP per person 5.0%: half of the growth is due to each factor. Since 2023, GDP per person has grown faster (4.2%) than population (2.1%).
The Bank of Spain, in its 2025 Annual Report, attributes the rise in the economy's potential growth, above 2%, to population dynamism, faster productivity growth and investment. Much of the population growth is due to immigration.
Since 2019, GDP has grown 10.0%: half from population, up 4.8%, and the other half from GDP per person (5.0%)
Real GDP, population and real GDP per person. Indices, 2019 = 100, 2015-2025
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See also: Immigration in data
Between 2023 and 2025, the average wage per worker rose 7.2% and consumer prices 5.5%. Adjusted for inflation, the average wage has gained 1.6% in purchasing power. That gain comes after the loss of 2022, when prices rose 8.4% and wages 4.6%: compared with 2019, before the pandemic, the purchasing power of the average wage is practically unchanged. Taking a longer view, since 2008, the real average wage is 3.7% lower.
Between 2023 and 2025, the average wage rises 7.2% and prices 5.5%
Indices, 2023 = 100. Average wage per worker and consumer prices, annual averages since 2015
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See also: Note: real wages and the minimum wage since 2008
The public deficit, the difference between what all levels of government spend and what they take in, fell from 3.3% of GDP in 2023 to 2.4% in 2025, the lowest in the series, which starts in 2008, and below the EU average of 3.1%. Revenue went from 42.1% to 42.9% of GDP, the highest in the series, and spending from 45.4% to 45.3%: almost all the improvement is on the revenue side.
AIReF, Spain's independent fiscal authority (report on the initial 2026 budgets, April 2026), explains the 2025 fall, from 3.2% to 2.4%: it is mainly due to the lower cost of the measures for the energy crisis and the DANA floods (eight tenths of a point) and of one-off operations (three tenths), while the rest of revenue and spending pushed the deficit up by three tenths. For 2026, AIReF expects the deficit to rise to 2.6% of GDP, mainly because of two packages of measures approved that year: one for the storms and another for the crisis in the Middle East.
The deficit falls from 3.3% to 2.4% of GDP between 2023 and 2025: revenue rises from 42.1% to 42.9% and spending goes from 45.4% to 45.3%
General government revenue and spending, as % of GDP, 2008-2025. The deficit is the gap between the two lines
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What this data does not say. None of these figures depends on the central government alone: the European economic cycle, population growth, energy prices and the decisions of regions and local councils, which also count towards the deficit and debt, all play a part. Revenue rising as a share of GDP can be due to tax rises, more jobs and profits, or inflation lifting tax takings, and the aggregate data does not separate those effects. Eurostat's 2025 data is provisional and may be revised. This review describes how Spain has changed during the parliament; it does not hand out credit or blame.
Sources for the text
Other themes
- Housing: why it is the issue of this electionThe 29 November election was called after Congress rejected two rental decrees. The data explains why housing is at the centre: since 2015 house prices have risen 80%, and wages 25%.
- Congress in dataHow the parties have voted in the 2,173 roll-call votes of this parliament: who votes with whom, who wins the votes and which government decrees fell.
- Jobs: the labour reform, three years onThe labour reform of December 2021 changed employment contracts. Since then, temporary employees in the private sector have gone from 23.7% to 12.4%. Part of that change has gone into permanent seasonal contracts, and youth unemployment is still among the highest in the EU.
- 29 November general electionPolls, the 2023 results and who governs each region, updated until election day. With the methodology in plain sight.
- Demographics and pensions: an ageing countrySpain spends 13.2% of GDP on pensions and its median pension equals 81% of the median earnings of those about to retire, the second highest ratio in the EU. Real spending has risen 53.5% since 2008, and for every person over 64 there are fewer people in work than then. How to pay for pensions is one of the questions of the 29 November election.
- Immigration in dataOne in five residents of Spain was born in another country, and one in four among those of working age. They are younger than the population born here, work in almost the same proportion and more often below their qualifications. Ahead of the 29 November election we look at where they come from, where they live, how they fare at work, what the evidence says about their effect on the economy and what the 2026 extraordinary regularisation involves.
- Regional finance: who raises the money, who receives it and whom the regions oweThe regions run health and education, and together with municipalities they spend half of all public money. They are funded by a 2009 system that shares money out unevenly, and they owe more than half of their debt to central government. Both questions are open on 29 November: the bill to write off part of that debt lapsed when parliament was dissolved.
- Health: waiting lists and spending by regionMore than 850,000 people are waiting for surgery in the public health system, and how long they wait depends heavily on where they live. Spain spends less on public health care than the EU average, and households pay a larger share out of their own pockets. Spending more per inhabitant does not guarantee shorter waits either: across regions, the two are barely related.