During 2003 6,251 more people came to the A.C. of the Basque Country than left, practically the same number as 2002, according to Eustat data. It was the fourth consecutive year with a positive migratory balance for the Community. By province, Bizkaia, which gained 4,020 people, presented the highest migratory balance in absolute terms, rising 17.4% in relation to the previous year. Álava, which gained 2,240 people through migration, saw its positive balance diminish by 17.3% with regard to the previous year. Gipuzkoa, in turn, lost 9 people.

8.2% of the Basque population made a change of residence during 2003, which in 70.8% of cases was within the A.C. of the Basque Country itself, while in the remaining cases the mobility was extra-community,

Graph 1.- Evolution of the migratory balance by Province

The positive migratory balance was due to the in-flow of people from overseas

If we consider solely the movements between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the other Autonomous Communities, 1,618 more people came in 2003, twice as many as the previous year. Despite this, the migratory balance between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the other Autonomous Communities was still negative, yielding a loss of 3,449 people. Elsewhere, the migratory balance for people coming from overseas countries was positive, with 9,700 more people, although this meant a fall of 1.92% with regard to the previous year.

In total, 173,734 changes of habitual place of residence were registered in the A.C. of the Basque Country:

- Of this figure, 84,117 corresponded to a change in residence within the same municipality.

- Intra-community mobility, which is to say movements whose origin and destination were different municipalities within the A.C. of the Basque Country, came to 38,934.

- In addition, there were 28,467 cases of external or extra-community immigration, whose origin was outside the Community and whose destination was the A.C. of the Basque Country.

- Lastly, there were 22,216 cases of external or extra-community emigration, which is to say changes of residence originating in a municipality of the Autonomous Community and whose destination was outside of it.

Geographical mobility and the emigration rate for the A.C. of the Basque Country were low in relation to the state average

External or extra-community mobility, which involved 24 out of each one thousand inhabitants of the A.C. of the Basque Country in 2003 (Álava 30‰, Bizkaia 26‰ and Gipuzkoa 18‰), was relatively slight if compared to the other Autonomous Communities, where 35 out of each thousand inhabitants move.

The emigration rate of the A.C. of the Basque Country, which stood at 10,5‰ in 2003, or 9.7‰ if we exclude emigrations abroad, was just under four points below the overall average for the Autonomous Communities. Those that were above the average- Castile and León, Madrid, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands and Ceuta-Melilla- surpassed the A.C. of the Basque Country with rates that ranged from 16‰ to 38‰.

The Autonomous Communities that contributed more people to the A.C. of the Basque Country than they received from it were Murcia, Castile-La Mancha, the Canary Islands and Asturias, as well as the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with whom there was a positive balance of 37 people. There was a similarly positive balance with overseas countries in 2003 of 9,700 people.

The most attractive Autonomous Communities for emigrants from the A.C. of the Basque Country were, in this order: Cantabria, Castile and León, Madrid and Navarre. These four accounted for one in two people that left our Community.

Immigrations of foreign nationals in 2003 came to 13,738 individuals, 12.7% more than the previous year, accounting for 48% of the total number of in-flows into our Community. There has been a considerable increase in the in-flow of foreign nationals registered in the A.C. of the Basque Country since 1988. In absolute terms, it went from around 500 in-flows to exceed 13,000 in 2003, which is to say that the number of immigrations of foreigners multiplied by 27 in fifteen years. It should be kept in mind that part of the foreign immigrants came from other Autonomous Communities. To be precise, this occurred in 4,098 cases in 2003.

As for the level of education, the lowest levels accounted for 50% of immigrations and 49.7% of emigrations; whereas the highest levels represented 17.2% of emigrations and 19% of immigrations.

The average age of emigrants, 39.1, was 4 years higher than that of immigrants, 35.1.