The Canary Islands (Islas Canarias) (28° 06'N, 15° 24'W) are an archipelago of the Kingdom of Spain consisting of seven islands of volcanic origin in the Atlantic Ocean. They are located off the northwestern coast of Africa (Morocco and the Western Sahara). They form an autonomous community of Spain. The name derives probably from a north African tribe (the Canarii) or possibly the Latin term Insularia Canaria meaning Island of the Dogs, a name applied originally only to the island of Gran Canaria. It is thought that the dense population of an endemic breed of large and fierce dogs was the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with the islands by the sea.

The economy is based primarily on tourism, which makes up 32% of the GDP. The Canaries receive about 10 million tourists per year. Construction makes up nearly 20% of the GDP and tropical agriculture, primarily bananas and tobacco, are grown for export to Europe and the Americas. Ecologists are concerned that the resources, especially in the more arid islands, are being overexploited but they still have lots of natural resources like tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cochineal, sugarcane, grapes, vines, dates, oranges, lemons, figs, wheat, barley, corn, apricots, peaches and almonds.

The economy size is 25 billion euro (2001 Gross Domestic Product figures). This is two times the size of Costa Rica's economy and one-third that of Venezuela. A remarkable fact is that if you take into account their population and surface area, the Canary Islands have one of the most powerful economies of the Central Atlantic region, including the zone known as "Macaronesian" (which includes Cape Verde, Madeira, Azores and the Canary Islands). The islands experienced continued growth during a consecutive 20 year period, up until 2001, at a rate of approximately 5% annually. This growth was fuelled mainly by huge amounts of Foreign Direct Investment, mostly to develop tourism real estate (hotels and apartments) and European Funds (near 11 billion euro in the period from 2000 to 2007) since the Canary Islands is labeled Region Objective 1 (eligible for euro structural funds).

The combination of high mountains, being a part of Europe, and clean air has made the Roque de los Muchachos peak (on La Palma island) a leading location for telescopes like the Grantecan.

The islands are outside European Union customs territory, though politically within the EU. The ISO 3166-1 α-2 code IC is reserved for representing them in customs affairs. Goods subject to Spanish customs and excise duties and Value Added Tax (VAT), such as tobacco or electronic goods, are therefore significantly cheaper in the Canaries. The islands do not have a separate Internet country code from the rest of Spain. The currency is the euro.

Canarian time is WET, one hour less than that of mainland Spain and the same as that of London