Madrid, Spain

🇪🇸 Madrid is the capital and most-populous city of Spain. The city is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and its monocentric metropolitan area is the second-largest in the EU. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid region, of which it is also the capital. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic and cultural centre of the country.

The Madrid urban agglomeration has the third-largest GDP in the European Union and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Madrid is home to two world-famous football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the major financial centre and the leading economic hub of the Iberian Peninsula and of Southern Europe. It hosts the head offices of the vast majority of major Spanish companies, such as Telefónica, IAG or Repsol. Madrid is also the 8th most liveable city in the world according to Monocle magazine.

Madrid houses the headquarters of the UN's World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB). It also hosts major international regulators and promoters of the Spanish language: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Instituto Cervantes and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fundéu BBVA). Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI and the Madrid Fashion Week.

While Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Royal Theatre with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th century National Library building containing some of Spain's historical archives; many national museums, and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which complements the holdings of the other two museums. Cibeles Palace and Fountain has become one of the monument symbols of the city.

Madrid concentrates activities directly connected with power (central and regional government, headquarters of Spanish companies, regional HQ of multinationals, financial institutions) and with knowledge and technological innovation (research centres and universities). It is one of Europe's largest financial centres, and the largest in Spain. The city has 17 universities and over 30 research centres. It is the second metropolis in the EU by population, and the third by gross internal product. Leading employers include Telefónica, Iberia, Prosegur, BBVA, Urbaser, Dragados, and FCC.

The economy of Madrid has become based increasingly on the service sector. In 2011 services accounted for 85.9% of value added, while industry contributed 7.9% and construction 6.1%. Nevertheless, Madrid continues to hold the position of Spain's second industrial centre, specialising particularly in high-technology production.

The share of services in the city's economy is 86%. Services for business, transport & communications, property, and financial together account for 52% of the total value added. The types of services that are now expanding are mainly those that facilitate movement of capital, information, goods and persons, and "advanced business services" such as research and development (R&D), information technology, and technical accountancy.

Madrid and the wider region's authorities have put a notable effort in the development of logistics infrastructure. Within the city proper, some of the standout centres include Mercamadrid, the Madrid-Abroñigal logistics centre, the Villaverde's Logistics Centre and the Vicálvaro's Logistics Centre to name a few.

Banks based in Madrid carry out 72% of the banking activity in Spain. The Spanish central bank, Bank of Spain, has existed in Madrid since 1782. Stocks & shares, bond markets, insurance, and pension funds are other important forms of financial institution in the city.

Madrid is an important centre for trade fairs, many of them co-ordinated by IFEMA, the Trade Fair Institution of Madrid. The public sector employs 18.1% of all employees. Madrid attracts about 8M tourists annually from other parts of Spain and from all over the world. Spending by tourists in Madrid was estimated at €9,546.5M, or 7.7% of the city's GDP.

The construction of transport infrastructure has been vital to maintain the economic position of Madrid. Travel to work and other local journeys use a high-capacity metropolitan road network and a well-used public transport system. In terms of longer-distance transport, Madrid is the central node of the system of autovías and of the high-speed rail network (AVE), which has brought major cities such as Seville and Barcelona within 2.5 hours travel time. Also important to the city's economy is Madrid-Barajas Airport, the fourth largest airport in Europe. Madrid's central location makes it a major logistical base.

Economy: Industry As an industrial centre Madrid retains its advantages in infrastructure, as a transport hub, and as the location of headquarters of many companies. Industries based on advanced technology are acquiring much more importance here than in the rest of Spain. Industry contributed 7.5% to Madrid's value-added in 2010. More industry has moved outward to the periphery. The leading industries were: paper, printing & publishing, 28.8%; energy & mining, 19.7%; vehicles & transport equipment, 12.9%; electrical and electronic, 10.3%; foodstuffs, 9.6%; clothing, footwear & textiles, 8.3%; chemical, 7.9%; industrial machinery, 7.3%. The PSA Peugeot Citroën plant is located in Villaverde district.

Construction The construction sector, contributed 6.5% to the city's economy in 2010, aided by a large transport and infrastructure program.

Tourist Industry Madrid is the seat of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the International Tourism Fair (FITUR). In 2018, the city received 10.21 million tourists (53.3% of them international tourists). The biggest share of international tourists come from the United States, followed by Italy, France, United Kingdom and Germany. As of 2018, the city has 793 hotels, 85,418 hotel places and 43,816 hotel rooms. It also had, as of 2018, an estimated 20,217 tourist apartments.

The most visited museum was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, with 3.8 million visitors in the sum of its three seats in 2018. Conversely, the Prado Museum had 2.8 million visitors and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum 906,815 visitors.

By the late 2010s, the gentrification and the spike of tourist apartments in the city centre led to an increase in rental prices, pushing residents out of the city centre. Most of the tourist apartments in Madrid (50–54%) are located in the Centro District. In the Sol neighbourhood (part of the latter district), 3 out of 10 homes are dedicated to tourist apartments, and 2 out of 10 are listed in AirBnB. In April 2019 the plenary of the ayuntamiento passed a plan intending to regulate this practice, seeking to greatly limit the number of tourist apartments. The normative would enforce a requirement for independent access to those apartments in and out of the street. However, after the change of government in June 2019, the new municipal administration plans to revert the regulation.

Media and entertainment Madrid is an important film and television production hub, whose content is distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world and abroad. Madrid is often seen as the entry point into the European media market for Latin American media companies, and likewise the entry point into the Latin American markets for European companies. Madrid is the headquarters of media groups such as Radiotelevisión Española, Atresmedia, Mediaset España Comunicación, and Movistar+, which produce numerous films, television shows and series which are distributed globally on various platforms. Since 2018, the region is also home to Netflix's Madrid Production Hub, Mediapro Studio, and numerous others such as Viacom International Studios. As of 2019, the film and television industry in Madrid employs 19,000 people (44% of people in Spain working in this industry).

RTVE, the state-owned Spanish Radio and Television Corporation is headquartered in Madrid along with all its TV and radio channels and web services (La 1, La 2, Clan, Teledeporte, 24 Horas, TVE Internacional, Radio Nacional de España), Radio Exterior de España, Radio Clásica. The Atresmedia group (Antena 3, La Sexta, Onda Cero) is headquartered in nearby San Sebastián de los Reyes. The television network and media production company, the largest in Spain, Mediaset España Comunicación (Telecinco, Cuatro) maintains its headquarters in Fuencarral-El Pardo district. Together with RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediaset account for nearly the 80% of share of generalist TV.

The Spanish media conglomerate PRISA (Cadena SER, Los 40 Principales, M80 Radio, Cadena Dial) is headquartered in Gran Vía street in central Madrid.

Madrid hosts the main TV and radio producers and broadcasters as well as the most of the major written mass media in Spain. It is home to numerous newspapers, magazines and publications, including ABC, El País, El Mundo, La Razón, Marca, ¡Hola!, Diario AS, El Confidencial and Cinco Días. The Spanish international news agency EFE maintains its headquarters in Madrid since its inception in 1939. The second news agency of Spain is the privately owned Europa Press, founded and headquartered in Madrid since 1953.