Spain
Spain’s Pace of Change to Achieve Digital Financial Transformations
Population
Spain had an estimated population of 46,754,778 as of the middle of 2020, according to UN data. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest UN data, Spain had a population of 46,766,708 as of February 21, 2026, with 80.3% living in urban areas, mainly Madrid and Barcelona. The median age of the population is 44.9 years. Spain had approximately 42.54 million active internet users as of January 2021, according to Data Reportal.
E-commerce
The median to high internet, banking, and smartphone penetration rate means Spain still faces several, but few challenges to establish an e-commerce market. The average annual revenue per paying user in Spain amounted to $1,447 in 2020, according to the PPRO Report. Most cross-border e-commerce purchases by Spainian shoppers are of products from China, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Payment preferences
In 2020, most Spaniards shoppers prefer to pay with cards, followed by cash, bank transfers, and other payment methods. For cashless payments, the three big players are Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.
Economy
According to IMF data, Spain had a gross domestic product of $1.39 trillion in 2019, which declined to $1.25 trillion in 2020 due to the pandemic. As the economy continues to recover, Spain's GDP is expected to expand to about $1.45 trillion in 2021.
Internet & mobile phone trends
According to Statista, the 97% majority of internet users in the country were aged above 20 years old as of 2020. According to Datareportal, there were 42.54 million internet users in January 2021, which had increased by about 144 thousand (+0.3%) from 2020, with an internet penetration rate of 91.0% in January 2021. Meanwhile, 73% of the population had smartphones in 2020.
Banking
According to the PPRO Report, 94% of Spaniards had bank accounts in 2020, but only up to 54% of them were credit card holders.