According to the authority on Spanish statistics (INE), Spain accumulated 2.942.583 companies in January 2004. This represents about 7.2 companies for each 100 inhabitants (which is nearly double the amount of the number in the Netherlands, which is 4.0)

It is generally a known fact that in Spain the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) or the Small & Medium Businesses (SMB) outnumber any other business. Much more than in Holland, although I cannot show you any information about it.

Less well known is another interesting figure:

• 51% of the companies are autonomous (no employees on the pay-roll). And 2,7% of the companies have more than 20 employees.

There are only a few large corporations, which shares are trades on the stock exchange. The most famous one is the stock exchange of Madrid, but there are three more; Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia.

This information