ocellata), which sometimes attains 3 ft. in length and is very abundant;
the Platydactylus saccicularis, the grey amphisbaena (Blanus cinereus),
the European pond-tortoise (Emys europaea), and another species,
Emys Siegrizii. Insect life is remarkably abundant and varied.
More than 350 species of butterflies, many of them endemic, have
been counted in the province of Madrid alone. Besides the ordinary
European scorpion, which is general in southern Europe, there is
another species, the sting of which is said to be still more severe,
found chiefly in the basin of the Ebro. Trout abound in the mountain streams and lakes, barbel and many other species of Cyprinidae
in the rivers of the plains. For the sea fauna, see under Fisheries
below.
Territorial Divisions and Population.—For administrative purposes the kingdom of Spain has since 1833 been divided into forty-nine provinces, forty-seven of which belong to the mainland. Before 1833 the mainland was divided into thirteen provinces, also enumerated below, which took their names from the ancient kingdoms and principalities out of which the modern kingdom was built up. All the continental provinces, ancient and modern, as also the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Annobon, Ceuta, Corisco, the Chaffarinas, Fernando Po, the Muni River Settlements and Rio de Oro are described in separate articles.
It is probable that the population of Spain attained its height during the early Roman Empire, when it has been estimated, though of course on imperfect data, to have numbered forty or fifty millions. The best evidence of a dense population in those days is that afforded by the specific estimates of ancient writers for some of the larger cities. The population of Tarraco (Tarragona) was estimated at 212 millions, and those of Nova Carthago (Cartagena), Italica (Sevilla la Vieja), and other cities at several hundreds of thousands. Emerita Augusta (Mérida) had a Roman garrison of 90,000 men, which also implies a large population.
The first Spanish census was made in 1594, but some of the provinces now included in the kingdom were not embraced in the enumeration, so that the total population assigned to Spain within its present limits for that date is obtained by adding the results of enumerations at different dates in the provinces then excluded. The total thus arrived at is 8,206,791. No other census took place till 1787, when the total was found to be 10,268,150; and this census was followed by another in 1797, when the population was returned as 10,541,221. Various estimates were made within the next sixty years, but the census of 1857 proved that some of these estimates must have been greatly below the truth. The total population then ascertained to exist in Spain was 15,464,340, an increase of not much less than 50% since the census of 1797. Between 1857 and 1877 the population increased to 16,631,869; and by 1897 it had risen to 18,132,475. The annual rate of increase during this period of forty years was less than .45%, or lower than that of any other European state, except France in the later years of the 19th century. The census of 1900, however, showed that the annual rate of increase had risen, between 1897 and 1900, to .89%, or nearly double its former amount. This fact may be explained partly by the growth of mining and certain other industries, partly, perhaps, by the recuperative power which the Spanish people has always exhibited after war—the most notable instance of which is the above-mentioned net increase of nearly 50% between 1797 and 1857, despite the Napoleonic invasion and other disastrous wars. A similar though much smaller acceleration in the annual rate of increase after the Carlist Wars of 1874–76 is largely attributable to the prosperity caused by railway development between 1877 and 1887. It would be unjustifiable to assume from the inadequate data available that the Spanish people retains the vitality which characterized it from 1797 to 1857. It is, however, clear from the census returns that at the beginning of the 20th century.
| Provinces | Area in sq. m. |
Pop., 1857. | Pop., 1887 | Pop., 1900. | Pop. per sq. m., 1900. |
New Castile |
27,935 |
1,477,915 |
1,778,155 |
1,923,310 |
60.8 |
| Total | 194,700 | 15,464,340 | 17,667,256 | 18,618,086 | 95.6 |
