Press Release 13/12/2022

MUNICIPAL STATISTICS ON INHABITANTS. 01/01/2022

The number of foreign residents in the Basque Country exceeded 186,000 inhabitants, 8.5% of the total population

In Álava, Africans were in the majority, while Latin Americans predominated in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa

The number of foreign nationals residing in the Basque Country stood at 186,630, 8.5% of the total population on 1 January 2022, according to Eustat data. This percentage was 2 tenths higher than on 1 January 2021, but lower than the 11.4% for Spain as a whole. The percentage varied slightly between provinces: Álava had the highest proportion at 10% (0.3 percentage points more than in 2021), followed by Gipuzkoa with 8.6% (0.1 points more) and finally, Bizkaia, with 8.1% (0.2 points more).

If we consider continent, Latin Americans represented 40.8% of foreign nationals, whilst in Spain they accounted for 29.1%. The countries with the greatest representation in this group were Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia, making up 29.4% of the total number of foreign nationals, and 71.9% of Latin American nationals. Regarding sex, 59.9% of residents of Latin American nationality were women.

European nationals residing in the Basque Country accounted for 23.4% compared to 43.4% in Spain. Romania stood out in this group, representing 10% of foreign nationals and 42.9% of Europeans, 16 percentage points higher than in Spain. In second place, albeit at some distance from Romania, was Portugal, making up 14.7% 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 27.2% of foreign residents in the Basque Country compared to 19.5% in Spain, with more than half coming from Morocco (53.3%). This was followed by Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria, at 13.3%, 10.3% and 9%, respectively. These four nationalities represented more than 86% of those with African nationality, and over 23% of all foreign nationals. If we look at distribution by sex, there was a predominance of men, with 61.7% of the total.

In last place were nationals from Asia and Oceania, accounting for 8.5% of foreign residents. Notably, almost the only countries of origin from this region were China and Pakistan, which accounted for 74.5% of this group.

In Álava, Africans were in the majority, while Latin Americans predominated in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa

In Álava, Africans represented the greatest proportion of foreign residents (39.3%), while the second largest group was residents with Latin American nationality, who accounted for 32.3% of the total.

In Bizkaia, Latin American nationals were the majority group (45%), followed, with fairly similar percentages, by people with African (25%) and European nationality (21.7%).

In Gipuzkoa, the distribution of nationalities was closer to that of Bizkaia than Álava, with a higher percentage of residents with Latin American nationality (39.2%), followed by those from Europe (28.2%) and Africa (24%).

86,626 foreign-born residents had Spanish nationality

On 1 January 2022, 86,626 foreign-born residents in the Basque Country had acquired Spanish nationality or already had it due to family or other reasons. Of this number, 67% came from Latin America. Among them, three countries accounted for almost 50% of people in this situation: Colombia (23.3%), Bolivia (12.4%) and Ecuador (11.9%).

14.4% of people who acquired Spanish nationality came from African countries and, of those, more than half were born in Morocco (54.5%), followed by those born in Algeria, at 14.6%.

Next were those born in other European countries, representing 13.6% of the total. Of those, over a third were born in France (34.6%), 15.7% in Portugal and in third place were those born in Germany, who accounted for 12.4%.



The foreign population living in the Basque Country was younger than the Spanish population

The average age of foreign nationals in the Basque Country was 33.4, a significantly lower figure than that of residents with Spanish nationality, which was 46.6. The average age of the Basque population as a whole was 45.5.

Meanwhile, if instead of looking at nationality we consider place of birth, we can also see significant differences in the average age, depending on whether the place of birth was in the Basque Country, the rest of Spain or abroad. The oldest population, with an average age of 64.7, was that born in the rest of Spain. It was followed by the population born in the Basque Country, with an average age of 42.1 and, lastly, people born abroad, with an average age of 38.1.

The number of people born abroad exceeded 255,000

On 1 January 2022, the number of people born abroad residing in the Basque Country stood at 255,597 and accounted for 11.7% of the total population. The proportion for Spain was 15.5%. Therefore, in this respect, the Basque Country was placed between Aragón and Castilla-La Mancha, with 14.5% and 11.6% of the population born abroad, respectively.

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 15.1%; in Bilbao it stood at 14.1% and in San Sebastián it reached 12.8% of its total population.

Of the 57 municipalities that had a proportion of people born abroad greater than that of the Basque Country as a whole, 18 had over 10,000 inhabitants. Baños de Ebro/Mañueta had the highest percentage, with 20.7%, followed by Navaridas (19.7%), Ordizia (18.8%), Lanciego/Lantziego (18.3%) and Gizaburuaga (18.1%). On the other hand, there were seven municipalities in the Basque Country where the percentage of the resident population born abroad was less than 3%: 5 of them in Gipuzkoa (Orexa, Aduna, Mutiloa, Beizama and Altzo), one in Bizkaia (Garai) and the other in Álava (Kripan). All of these municipalities were sparsely populated, as Aduna, the largest, only had 483 inhabitants, and between them they had a total population of 1,827 people.

For further information:

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