Press release 10/12/2019

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS ON INHABITANTS. 2019

Foreign nationals represented 7.6% of the total population of the Basque Country on 1 January 2019

Around 60,000 foreign-born residents acquired Spanish nationality or had it already due to family or other reasons

Foreign residents of the Basque Country amounted to 166,695 people, 7.6% of the total population on 1 January 2019, according to data prepared by EUSTAT. This percentage is 6 tenths higher than on 1 January 2018. The percentage varied slightly between provinces: Álava had the highest proportion with 9.3% (0.6 percentage points more than in 2018), followed by Gipuzkoa with 7.8% (0.3 points more) and finally, Bizkaia, with 7.0% (0.6 points more).

Regarding nationality, Latin Americans made up 37.5% of foreign nationals, whilst in Spain they accounted for just over 25%. The countries with the greatest representation in this group were Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay, making up 19.7% of the total number of foreign nationals, and 52.5% of the Latin American nationals. Regarding sex, 62% of residents of Latin American nationality were women.

In contrast, European residents in the Basque Country made up 25.5% compared to 46.3% in Spain. Romania stood out in this group, accounting for 11.5% of foreign nationals and 44.9% of Europeans, 15 percentage points higher than in Spain. In second place, albeit at some distance from Romania, was Portugal, making up 15.1% of Europeans in the Basque Country. In this group, both sexes had a similar presence, the percentage of men being slightly higher.

African countries accounted for 28.1% of foreign residents in the Basque Country compared to 20% in Spain, with half coming from Morocco (51.4%). This was followed by Algeria, with 13%, and Nigeria and Senegal, with 10%. These four nationalities accounted for 84.5% of those with African nationality. Regarding sex, there was a predominance of men, more than 60% of the total.

In last place were nationals from Asia and Oceania, accounting for 8.8% of foreign residents. Notably, almost the only countries of origin from this region were China and Pakistan, which accounted for 75.8% of the group.

Africans, mainly Moroccans, stood out in Álava, whilst Latin Americans predominated in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa

In Álava, Africans accounted for the greatest proportion (42%), whilst those of Latin American nationality, more than a quarter of them Colombians, did not reach 28%. Romanians accounted for nearly 28% of Europeans and Moroccans almost half of Africans (48.1%), followed by Algerians and Nigerians. Pakistanis reached 55.7% of Asian residents.

In Bizkaia, Latin American nationals were the majority group (41.8%), with those from Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia and Nicaragua standing out among them, together accounting for almost 60%. The proportion of Romanians among Europeans was more than half (58%), similar to the case of Moroccans among Africans (48.4%) and Chinese (53.9%) and Pakistanis (20.5%) among Asians.

In Gipuzkoa, Latin American nationals were also the majority group, with the residents from Honduras standing out, with almost 68% of residents of this nationality in the Basque Country as a whole located in this province. Portuguese nationals had a relatively higher presence compared to in the others provinces. Africans represented the smallest proportion in the Basque Country, most of them Moroccans (59.2%), followed by Algerians and Senegalese. Amongst Asians, Pakistanis accounted for a relative presence higher than the average of the Basque Country.

The number of people born abroad exceeded 220,000

On 01 January 2019, the number of people born abroad residing in the Basque Country was 223,033 and accounted for 10.2% of the total population. This meant that around 60,000 people from this group acquired Spanish nationality or had it already due to family or other reasons.

The proportion for Spain was 13.9%. Therefore, in this respect, the Basque Country was level with Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia where the proportion of the population born abroad reached around 10%.

Of the 57 municipalities that had a proportion of people born abroad greater than that of the Basque Country as a whole, 19 were in Álava and, of those, 7 exceeded 13%, half of them being from the region of Rioja Alavesa. Despite this, the five municipalities with the highest percentages are scattered around the Basque Country: Baños de Ebro, which exceeded 19%, Navaridas (17.5%), Ordizia (17.4%), Lanciego (17.3%) and Berriatua (17.3%).

On the other hand, there were five municipalities with barely any resident population born abroad, all of them in Gipuzkoa: Orexa, Aduna, Mutiloa, Abaltzisketa and Albiztur. These are municipalities with small populations, as Aduna, the largest, only has 480 inhabitants and the proportion of the resident population born abroad is less than 2%.

The three provincial capitals had percentages of the population born abroad higher than that of the Basque Country as a whole, with the highest proportion being in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where it stood at 13.5%; in Bilbao it stood at 12.2% and in San Sebastián it reached 11.3% of the total population.

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