17,692 more people came to the A.C. of the Basque Country than left in 2007, which meant a 22.4% increase in the migratory balance with respect to 2009, according to Eustat data.

This is the eighth consecutive year where a positive migratory balance was registered for the Community. By provinces, Bizkaia, which gained 9,098 people, had the highest migratory balance in absolute figures and it was up 16% compared to 2006. Gipuzkoa, which gained 4,198 people, increased its balance by 26% with respect to the previous year. Álava gained 4,396 people, which represented an increase of 36%.

Graph 1.- Evolution of the migratory balance by province

Source: EUSTAT

The positive migratory balance was due to people from overseas

The migratory balance for people coming from overseas was a positive one of 19,884 people, a figure that meant a 9.8% increase as regards the previous year. If we consider solely the movements between the A.C. of the Basque Country and the other autonomous communities, the migratory balance between the former and latter was a loss of around 2,192 people in 2007.

9.4% of the Basque population changed their place of residence in some way during 2007. Mobility within the A.C. of the Basque Country accounted for 67% cases, while the rest of the mobility originated from outside the community.

In total, 199,608 changes in the normal place of residence were recorded in the A.. C. of the Basque Country.

-Of this figure, 89,600 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, accounted for 44,978 movements

-Likewise, 41,361 cases of extra-community or external immigration were recorded, which are those whose origin was in a municipality outside the Community and whose destination is the A.C. of the Basque Country.

-Finally, there were 23,669 cases of external or extra-community emigration, in other words, residential variations originating in a municipality of the Community and with the destination outside it.

Table 1.-: Evolution of the migratory balances and movements. A.C. of the Basque Country

Source: EUSTAT

External geographical mobility, which involved 30.5 per thousand inhabitants of the A.C. of the Basque Country (Álava 37.5‰, Bizkaia 30.7‰ and Gipuzkoa 27.1‰) in 2007, was relatively small if compared to the other autonomous communities, where 51 per thousand inhabitants moved.

The autonomous communities that contributed more population to the A.C. of the Basque Country than those that they received from the latter were Murcia, Catalonia, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad Valenciana and Aragón.

The autonomous communities that were a pole of attraction for the emigrants of the A.C. of the Basque Country were in this order: Cantabria, Castilla y León, Navarra, La Rioja, Galicia and Madrid. These six were the destination of one out of every two people who leave our Community.

The number of foreign immigrants stood at 28,928 in 2007, a figure that accounted for 70% of the entries into our Community. Since 2000, when the first positive migratory balances were not, a significant increase in the number of foreign immigrants registered in the A.C. of the Basque Country has been noted. In 2007, there was a 19% increase in the number of cases of immigration by foreign nationals. It should be kept in mind that part of the foreign immigrants came from other Autonomous Communities and this occurred in 7,113 cases in 2007.

As far as the level of education was concerned, 54% of the immigrants and 52% of the emigrants had completed the primary education, while 16% of emigrants and 15% of immigrants had completed higher or further education.

The average age of the emigrants (35.1 years old) was higher than that of the immigrants (30.9 years old).