Gran Canaria (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡɾaŋ kaˈnaɾja]), whose original name Canaria was due to the Canarii inhabitants, was later given the epithet of "great". It is the third island in size of the Canary Islands, an African archipelago which is part of Spain, with a population of 847,830 (in 2015) that constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago.