7.7% of the Basque population changed residence during 2002, mobility in 71.8% of cases being within the A.C. of the Basque Country, while in the rest the mobility was extra-community, according to Eustat data.

During 2002 6,237 more people came to than left the A.C. of the Basque Country. It is the third consecutive year that registered a positive migratory balance for the Community. By provinces, Bizkaia, who gained 3,425 persons, presented the highest migratory balance in absolute figures and increased by 7.6% with regard to the previous year. Álava, who gained 2,710 persons from migration, increased its positive balance by 17% with regard to the previous year. In turn, Guipúzcoa gained 103 persons.

If we take into consideration only movements between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the rest of the Autonomous Communities, 793 fewer people came in 2002 than the previous year, which represents a 5% decrease. The migratory balance between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the rest of the Autonomous Communities is still negative, showing a loss of 3,653 people. In addition, the migratory balance for persons from foreign countries is positive, with 9,890 persons more, which represents a 17.5% increase in relation to the previous year.

Altogether there were 162,218 changes of usual residence in the A.C. of the Basque Country:

- Of this figure, specifically 79,335 corresponded to changes of residence within the same municipality.

- Intra-community mobility, i.e. that which has its origin and destination in different municipalities in the A.C. of the Basque Country, came to 37,186 movements.

- In addition, 25,967 external or extra-community immigrations were registered, which are those that originate outside the Community and whose destination is the A.C. of the Basque Country.

- Finally, there were 19,730 external or extra-community emigrations, i.e. residential variations originating in a municipality of the Autonomous Community but with a final destination outside the Community.

Geographic mobility and the emigration rate of the A.C. of the Basque Country are low in relation to the state average

External or extra-community geographic migration, which affected 22 out of every thousand inhabitants of the A.C. of the Basque Country during 2002 (Álava 29‰, Bizkaia 23‰ and Gipuzkoa 16‰), is relatively low if compared with the rest of the autonomous communities, where 34 of every thousand inhabitants moved.

The emigration rate of the A.C. of the Basque Country, which was 9.4‰ in 2002, if we exclude the data for emigrations abroad, came to 9.1‰, slightly over three percent below the average for the whole of the autonomous communities. Situated above the average were Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, La Rioja, Baleares and Ceuta-Melilla, and above the A.C. of the Basque Country with rates that vary between 14‰ and 37‰.

The autonomous communities that contribute to the A.C. of the Basque Country more population than they receive from here are the Canaries, Murcia and Aragón, in addition to the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with which we have a positive balance of 38 persons. A positive balance was also registered in 2002 for immigration from abroad, with 9,890 persons.

The autonomous communities that are a pole of attraction for emigrants from the A.C. of the Basque Country are in the following order: Castile and León, Cantabria, Madrid and Navarre. Between the four they receive one in every two people who leave our Community.

Immigrations by foreigners in 2002 came to 12,184 people, 7.3% more than the year before and represent 47% of the total entries in our Community. Since 1988 there was a considerable increase in the volume of entries by foreign immigrants registered in the A.C. of the Basque Country. In absolute values, the number of entries rose from 500 to over 12,000 in 2002, i.e. foreign immigrations multiplied by 24 in fourteen years. We must take into consideration that some foreign immigrants came from other autonomous communities. In particular, in 2002 this was the case for 3,389 immigrants.

With regard to the level of qualifications, the lowest qualification levels represented 49% of immigrations and 51.2% for emigrations; higher levels represented 16.8% for emigrations and 18.5% for immigrations.

The average age of emigrants was 38.5 years, 4.2 years older than that of immigrants, 34.3.