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Press release 16/10/2020

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS ON INHABITANTS. 2020

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The population of the Basque Country increased by 11,700 in 2020, approaching 2,200,000 inhabitants

In this century the Basque population has risen by more than 120,000

The population of the Basque Country stood at 2,199,711 on 01 January 2020, reaching a new historic maximum, according to Eustat data. The Basque population increased by 11,694 compared to 2019, maintaining the upward trend of the previous year. Specifically, the population of the Basque country has increased by 120,501 since 2001.

All three provinces increased their population between 2019 and 2020, Bizkaia being the province that gained the most population, with 6,191 additional residents; it was followed by Gipuzkoa, whose population stood at 720,458 residents, 3,261 more people than the previous year; whereas Álava, with a population of 330,209 inhabitants, was the province with the lowest population increase (+2,242 inhabitants).

Between 2001 and 2020, Gipuzkoa increased its population by 48,024 residents; it was followed in number by Álava, with 45,613; whereas Bizkaia only gained 26,864 inhabitants.

All three Basque capitals saw an increase in their populations between 2019 and 2020, with Bilbao experiencing the greatest increase, with 3,048 more people; Vitoria-Gasteiz and San Sebastián gained 1,938 and 739 inhabitants, respectively. Analysis of a longer period of time, however, produced different results. If we go back to 2001, we see that the population of Bilbao has hardly changed over the last twenty years (-974); neither is the evolution of San Sebastian (+4,269) very significant. Both capitals reached their maximum populations in 2009. Vitoria-Gasteiz, on the other hand, has consistently increased its population in these two decades by more than 15%, going from 214,676 to 248,087 inhabitants.

The remaining municipalities in the Basque Country did not experience significant population changes between 2019 and 2020. The municipality which saw the greatest increase in its population was Barakaldo, with 503 more inhabitants. Baliarrain was the municipality that had the greatest percentage increase, with 9.27%, which translates into 14 more inhabitants. At the opposite extreme, Getxo was the municipality with the greatest absolute decrease in population, of 135 inhabitants, although that only represented -0.18%

Between 2001 and 2020, Portugalete, Sestao, Basauri and Getxo lost over 4,000 inhabitants each, adding up to a total loss of 17,352 people. All of these are part of Greater Bilbao, which has the highest concentration of municipalities with a higher population density in the Basque Country, above 5,000 inhabitants per km2, with the highest density occurring in Portugalete, with 17,352 inhabitants per km2 in 2020.

If we consider the regions, it was precisely Greater Bilbao that had the greatest population increase between 2019 and 2020, with 4,854 more inhabitants, followed by Llanada Alavesa (+2,158) and Donostialdea (+1,658). There was no significant variation in the remaining regions in respect of the previous year. If we go back to 2001, Llanada Alavesa and Donostialdea were once again the two regions which had the greatest population increase, 38,715 and 173,170 respectively, whereas Greater Bilbao had a slight decrease in the same period(-1,154).

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The Basque Country is one of the autonomous regions with the greatest proportion of older people

In 2020, the proportion of the population of the Basque Country who were 65 or older (22.5%) was greater than in Spain (19.6%), although there were other Autonomous Regions such as Principado de Asturias, Castilla y León and Galicia that had higher proportions, with percentages above 25%. Compared to Europe, only Italy has higher figures than the Basque Country, although only by three tenths. If we take gender into account, the proportion of women who are 65 or over was 25.1% compared to 19.7% of men.

84 municipalities exceeded the average percentage of the Basque Country, whilst 167 presented the same or a lower percentage; among the former are Bilbao, Donostia/San Sebastián, Barakaldo and Getxo, which are home to almost 32% of the total population of the Basque Country. In 2001 the percentage of the population aged over 65 was 18% and 163 municipalities had a percentage higher than the average. Between 2001 and 2020, the proportion of people aged over 65 decreased in 112 municipalities, although they were home to only 5.8% of the total population.

There was quite a lot of disparity between the Basque municipalities regarding the age of the resident population and, more specifically, the percentage of people 65 and over, which varied between 10.3% in Irura and 39.4% in Harana/Valle de Arana. In addition to Irura, there were another 3 municipalities that had a percentage under 12%: Astigarraga, Arakaldo and Irura, which had a combined population of 8,656 inhabitants. On the other hand, there were also three municipalities that had a percentage over 29%: Lagrán, Añana and Valdegobía, which had a combined total of 1,419 residents.

Regionally, there was a notably high proportion of elderly people in the region of Montaña Alavesa, reaching 26.8% of the total, whilst in the region with the second highest percentage, Markina-Ondarroa, it reached 23.9% and in the region of Plentzia-Mungia, it was down to 17.3%.

If we look at older age groups, people aged 85 and above went from constituting 1.9% of the total population in 2001 to 4% of the total population in 2020, although this increase was unevenly distributed between women and men, being 1.6 percentage points for men and 2.6 for women. As a result, women aged 85 or over in the Basque Country represented 5.3% of the total, whereas in the case of men, the percentage dropped to half, 2.6%. This process has been very dramatic for the centenarian population, with a rise in the number of centenarians from 378 in 2001 to 726 ten years later, 86.8% of whom were women.

In the Basque Country, there was a ratio of 1.5 people aged 65 or more to every person under 16, exceeding the ratio for Spain as a whole, which is 1.3, but still far from the ratio in Principado de Asturias, which is 2.2.

The municipalities that exceed this ratio number 88, with extreme cases such as Harana/Valle de Arana, which has a ratio of 7 to 1 and Lagrán with 6 to 1. On the other hand, municipalities such as Irura and Baliarrain, had more than 2 young people aged 0 to15 for each person aged 65 and over.

Population distribution by age is most extreme in the municipalities of Álava where, due above all to its small size and the fact that any demographic phenomena, particularly migration, modifies this distribution.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62  

Inglés
Product data

The population of the Basque Country increased by 11,700 in 2020, approaching 2,200,000 inhabitants

Operation : 
Population and housing census. Population structure
Código operación : 
010154
Frequency : 
Biannual
Timeframe : 
01/01/2024
Last updated : 
10/16/2020
Next update : 
10/00/2025
Type of operation : 
Censo
Available formats : 
Pdf
Licence : 
Creative Commons
Permalink : 
https://en.eustat.eus/elementos/not0017649_i.html
Metodologia : 
Methodology file
Body responsible : 

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