19 Surprising Facts to Strike up a Conversation about Spain
Fun ways to spark up a convo about Spain. We bet you didn’t know most of these surprising facts about Spain!
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1. During the height of the Crisis, the unemployment rate in Spain was higher than that in the United States during the Great Depression.2. Pass the Olive Oil!3. Spanish isn’t the only language spoken in Spain4. Spain’s national anthem has no words5. There’s a zip line connecting Spain and Portugal6. There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are in Spain7. Spain has the highest number of bars per inhabitant of any country in the European Union.8. Have a mop in your house? Thank the Spanish!9. It is legal to grow and smoke marijuana in Spain10. Real Madrid is the richest football club in the world.11. Latin isn’t the only language that left its mark on Spanish12. Tomatoes, Potatoes, Avocados, Cacao, and Tobacco came to Europe because of Spain13. Speaking of tobacco…14. The Sagrada Familia has been under construction for nearly 130 years!15. The world’s oldest functioning lighthouse is located in Spain.16. The first novel came from Spain17. Bullfighting isn’t as “national” of a pastime as you may think.18. Spain remained neutral in both of the World Wars19. The Eiffel Tower was meant for BarcelonaConclusionAwkward silences–the slow, painful death of a conversation. Those moments can feel like an eternity as you rack your brain for something to say. What better way to revive a conversation than by filling that uncomfortable lull with fun, little-known facts? Everyone loves trivia, right?
Well to save you some time, we’ve gone ahead and done the research part for you. Read on for 19 surprising facts about Spain.
1. During the height of the Crisis, the unemployment rate in Spain was higher than that in the United States during the Great Depression.
Spain’s unemployment rate reached 27.16% in the first quarter of 2013. For comparison, the estimated US unemployment rate averaged 24.9% in 1933, during the Great Depression. These figures come from different periods and statistical methods, but they show how severe Spain’s employment crisis was.
2. Pass the Olive Oil!
When talking about olive oil, most people immediately think of places like Italy and Greece. Both produce delicious oils, but Spain is the world’s leading olive-oil producer. Its share of world production varies from harvest to harvest, and Andalusia is its main producing region.
3. Spanish isn’t the only language spoken in Spain
There are many varieties of Spanish spoken in Spain, with different accents, vocabulary, and slang. Spain also has other co-official languages in particular regions: Galician in Galicia, Basque or Euskara in the Basque Country and parts of Navarre, Catalan (called Valencian in the Valencian Community), and Aranese, a variety of Occitan that is official in Catalonia. Basque is a language isolate, with no generally accepted relationship to another living language family.
4. Spain’s national anthem has no words
It is called the “Marcha Real” (Royal March), and its current official version has music but no lyrics. Various lyrics have been written at different points in its history, but they are not part of the official national anthem.
5. There’s a zip line connecting Spain and Portugal
The Limite Zero zip line crosses the Guadiana River from Sanlúcar de Guadiana in Spain to Alcoutim in Portugal. It spans 720 metres and reaches speeds of about 70–80 km/h (roughly 43–50 mph), making the crossing itself a very short, adrenaline-pumping trip.
6. The United States has a huge Spanish-speaking population
The Instituto Cervantes’s 2025 estimates put the United States at about 45.5 million people with native command of Spanish, compared with about 47.3 million in Spain. When people with limited command are included, the US total rises to about 65.5 million. So the comparison depends on which group is being counted.
7. Spain has a lively bar culture.
Maybe there’s a reason Spain is known for its “fiesta.” Bars are familiar meeting places in cities and pueblos (villages), where locals gather for coffee, food, drinks, and conversation. Their number and the ways people use them vary by area.
8. Spain helped popularize the modern mop
Spain has contributed some famous everyday innovations. Manuel Jalón’s mop-and-wringer models, patented between 1957 and 1964, became widely used, although mops existed earlier. Enric Bernat also founded the successful Chupa Chups brand; that is different from inventing every candy on a stick.
9. Spain’s cannabis rules depend on use and location
The rules are more complicated than a blanket “legal” claim. Consuming or possessing cannabis in public places can be an administrative offence, and cultivation visible from public places can also be penalized. Growing or distributing it to supply others can be a criminal offence. Private use does not make every form of cultivation or supply lawful.
10. Real Madrid led the 2024/25 football revenue ranking.
According to Deloitte’s Football Money League 2026, Real Madrid generated close to €1.2 billion in the 2024/25 season, the highest revenue of any football club in that ranking. FC Barcelona came second with about €975 million. This compares revenue for a specific season, rather than every possible measure of wealth.
11. Latin isn’t the only language that left its mark on Spanish
The Iberian Peninsula was a hotspot in ancient times. It seems like everyone wanted to move in and claim it for their own due to its rich, fertile lands and great port cities. The most famous group to rule in Spain were the Romans. They left behind not only their industry and architecture, but their language as well. Spanish is, after all, a Romance language.
Surprisingly enough, however, the second most influential language to leave its mark on Spanish is Arabic. Parts of the Iberian Peninsula were under Muslim rule from 711 to 1492. The traces left behind from this time go much deeper than the ornate architecture–the language was impacted as well. Words such as azúcar (sugar), aceite (oil), hasta (until), and barrio (neighborhood) all came to Spanish through Arabic.
12. Tomatoes, Potatoes, Avocados, Cacao, and Tobacco came to Europe because of Spain
All of these products were originally produced in the Americas and never before cultivated in Europe. Spanish explorers were the ones who brought them back across the Atlantic after their epic, and often tragic conquistas.
13. Speaking of tobacco…
Tobacco is still a familiar part of life in Spain, but smoking figures need a date and an age range. In the national EDADES 2024 survey, 36.8% of people aged 15–64 reported using tobacco in the previous 12 months. That is not the same as saying they all smoked daily, and rates differ by age group.
14. The Sagrada Familia has been under construction since 1882!
The Sagrada Familia is an icon of Barcelona: a large Roman Catholic basilica designed by Antoni Gaudí. Construction began in 1882. The tower of Jesus Christ was completed and inaugurated in 2026, but that milestone does not mean that the entire building project is finished.
15. The world’s oldest functioning lighthouse is located in Spain.
The Torre de Hércules is located in the Galician city of A Coruña on the northwestern edge of the country, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It’s an ancient Roman lighthouse, and is over 1900 years old! It’s still working, and you can even take a tour of it, traveling all the way up to the top for some simply breathtaking views.
16. A landmark of the modern novel came from Spain
Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is widely regarded as a foundation of the modern novel, rather than the first novel of any kind. His work, Don Quixote de la Mancha was published in 1605, with a second volume published in 1615. It’s a comical, satirical, somewhat romantic story that follows the adventures of the good-intentioned (although not always sane) Don Quixote and his lovable side-kick Sancho Panza.
17. Bullfighting isn’t as “national” of a pastime as you may think.
Yes, bullfights still take place in Spain, but interest varies greatly by person and region. Festivals are important occasions, while major venues such as Madrid’s Las Ventas also hold events during a regular season. Catalonia passed a ban in 2010, but Spain’s Constitutional Court annulled it in 2016; that legal history is different from saying bullfighting is currently banned there.
18. Spain did not formally enter either World War
Spain was neutral in World War I and did not formally enter World War II, although its wartime policy shifted between neutrality and pro-Axis non-belligerence. Spanish Blue Division volunteers fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union. Even before World War II, the country still had an interesting role in the buildup to WWII. From the years 1936-1939, Spain was locked in a tragic civil war. During those years, major world powers flooded into the Iberian Peninsula. The Nazi Germans came along with the Fascist Italians to support Nationalist General Franco (who would become Spain’s dictator, ruling from 1939 until his death in 1975).
The Soviet Union also provided personnel and equipment to the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. The Republic’s supporters included several political groups, among them republicans, socialists, communists, and anarchists; they were not a single predominantly Communist bloc.
19. The Eiffel Tower was designed for Paris’s 1889 World’s Fair
It’s hard to imagine this French symbol anywhere but France. The often-repeated story that Barcelona rejected it is not the tower’s documented origin: its engineers developed the project for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier conceived the design in 1884, with architect Stephen Sauvestre helping refine its appearance and Gustave Eiffel taking the project forward.
Conclusion
In this article we’ve given you a list of some of the most surprising facts about Spain. These things are great for sparking up conversations and sprinkling in some fun trivia along the way.
