Press Release 12/05/2023

INDUSTRIAL SURVEY – REGIONS. 2021

Industry sales were up in 19 of the 20 regions in the Basque Country in 2021

Montaña Alavesa (9.3%) and Estribaciones del Gorbea (6.1%) in Álava and Encartaciones in Bizkaia (5.3%) were the regions with the highest growth in employment

In 2021, Extraction and manufacturing industry activity in the Basque Country recovered from the fall in sales caused by the pandemic the year before (-18.4%) with growth of 18.6%, registering increases in nineteen of the twenty Basque regions, according to Eustat data.

Estribaciones del Gorbea, which saw a rise of 41.9%, and Añana (26.9%) in Álava and Encartaciones and Gran Bilbao in Bizkaia, with increases of 30.0% and 26.0%, respectively, were the regions with the highest growth in sales. In the case of Gipuzkoa, Alto Deba (22.5%) was the region that experienced the biggest rise in industrial sector sales.

Source: Eustat. Industrial Survey

Period availables 20102011201220132014201520162017201820202021

Order by PersonnelSales

Order OriginalAlphabeticRanking

Employment in the Basque Country registered an average increase of 0.5%. The most positive performances in this indicator were seen in Montaña Alavesa (9.3%) and Estribaciones del Gorbea (6.1%) in Álava, Encartaciones (5.3%) in Bizkaia and Urola Kosta (4.8%) in Gipuzkoa.

As regards gross value added, which is the difference between the value of what is produced and that of the consumption utilised and represents the wealth generated, it rose by 16.4% in 2021 compared to the previous year. The regional trend was also positive for eighteen of the twenty Basque regions, with Estribaciones del Gorbea in Álava once again being the region that saw the largest increase in value added (37.1%) from 2020 to 2021.

Álava

Employment in the Extraction and manufacturing industry sector was down 0.1% in Álava as a whole, with decreases in all but two regions, Montaña Alavesa and Estribaciones del Gorbea, which registered notable growth in employment of 9.3% and 6.1%, respectively.

Besides these increases, employment in the other regions in this province dropped by varying degrees. It fell by 6.8% in Añana, 1.1% in Rioja Alavesa and 0.2% in the case of Cantábrica Alavesa. In Llanada Alavesa, the region where the provincial capital, Vitoria-Gasteiz, is located, it was down 0.1%.

As regards sales, it should be pointed out that in the province of Álava net sales rose by 14.4% compared to 2020, a trend marked by the region of Llanada Alavesa, where sales were up 14.2% on the previous year, 2020. This region, where the provincial capital Vitoria-Gasteiz, is located, accounted for the highest percentage of total sales in the province (71.7% of sales), as well as the highest percentage of jobs (63.5%).

As for the other regions in the province, sales increased significantly in all but one. Three of them experienced a rise of more than 20%: Estribaciones del Gorbea (41.9%), Añana (26.9%) and Montaña Alavesa (21.8%); they were followed by Rioja Alavesa with an 11.5% increase in sales. There was also a notable fall in sales of 2.7% in Cantábrica Alavesa, which was the second largest region in terms of turnover and volume of employment, accounting for 8.6% of total turnover in Álava and 13.9% of jobs.

Gross value added for the Basque Country as a whole rose by 16.4% in 2021. The regional trend was only negative for two of the twenty regions in the Basque Country, both of which are in Álava. They were Montaña Alavesa, which saw its value added drop by 7.1% from 2020 to 2021, and Cantábrica Alavesa, where it was down 4.3%. The province of Álava as a whole recorded growth of 11.2% in value added, and the other regions saw a positive variation, with significant increases in Estribaciones del Gorbea (37.1%) and Llanada Alavesa (13.8%). These regions were followed by Añana and Rioja Alavesa, where it rose by 8.8% and 1.8%, respectively.

Bizkaia

In Bizkaia, the increase in employment for the province as a whole stood at 0.1% and only three of its seven regions posted a positive annual variation, namely Encartaciones, where employment rose by 5.3%, Markina-Ondarroa (0.7%) and Gran Bilbao (0.6%). Employment fell in the other regions; the most significant case occurred in Arratia-Nervión, with 5.6% fewer jobs. Next were Plentzia-Mungia and Gernika-Bermeo, both with a drop of 0.2%. In the case of Duranguesado, employment remained unchanged.

Two regions set the positive trend with regard to sales in the province, where there was a total increase of 22.0%. These were Gran Bilbao, which absorbed 65.7% of total turnover, and Duranguesado, with 19.6%, together contributing 85.3% of total sales recorded in Bizkaia. Both these regions experienced an upward trend in sales of 26.0% and 15.5% respectively, compared to 2020. The first, which is in the provincial capital Bilbao, accounted for 54.3% of employment and the second accounted for 24.6%, equal to almost 80% of total jobs. However, Encartaciones was the region in Bizkaia where sales experienced the largest increase, rising by as much as 30.0%, although its share of the total only represented 1.3% of sales.

The other regions in this province, whose figures were also positive, saw less pronounced variations than those mentioned above: there was growth of 17.2% in Gernika-Bermeo, 12.7% in Arratia-Nervión and 11.5% in Plentzia-Mungia, while sales were up 10.2% in Markina-Ondarroa, making it the worst-performing region in the province.

In turn, Bizkaia was the province that experienced the biggest increase in value added, at 21.9%. As was the case in Gipuzkoa, all its regions posted positive trends, especially Gran Bilbao, with a rise of 29.1%, which was also the region that accumulated just over half of the value added for this province. This region was followed by Duranguesado (up 20.1%), Encartaciones (9.6%), Plentzia-Mungia (7.5%) and Gernika-Bermeo (7.4%). At the bottom of the list were Markina-Ondarroa and Arratia-Nervión, with increases of 3.2% and 2.7%, respectively.

Gipuzkoa

In Gipuzkoa, the effects on employment were felt more intensely (1.1%) than in Álava and Bizkaia. Despite this, not all its regions saw their figures improve. Urola Kosta posted the greatest positive variation in employment (4.8%), followed by Donostialdea, with an increase of 2.3%. Between them they accounted for 38.6% of total employment in the province. These two regions were followed by Alto Deba, where the number of people employed rose by 1.0%, Bajo Bidasoa, where it was up 0.8%, and Bajo Deba, with 0.2%. The two remaining regions in this province, Goierri and Tolosaldea, experienced downturns, with employment falling by 1.0% and 1.5%, respectively.

Although Gipuzkoa fared the best in terms of employment, with regard to sales, it ranked in the middle of the three provinces of the Basque Country. Despite a 17.6% increase in turnover in 2021, this figure was far from the 22.0% rise in Bizkaia and above the 14.4% growth recorded in Álava.

The percentage weight of total sales in the regions in the province as a whole varied between 4.2% in Bajo Bidasoa and 24.5% in Donostialdea. Goierri, with 21.2%, and Alto Deba, with 16.4%, had similar shares.

At regional level, the evolution of sales between 2020 and 2021 ranged from 22.5% more turnover in Alto Deba to 8.7% more in Bajo Bidasoa. Closer to the provincial average were Urola Kosta, with a 20.5% increase in sales, Goierri with 17.0% more, Tolosaldea with growth of 16.0% and Bajo Deba, up 14.3%.

Donostialdea, the region where the provincial capital is located, saw its sales rise by 17.2% and its weight in Gipuzkoa’s overall sales was very similar to its share of employment. Donostialdea accounted for 24.5% of sales and 25.3% of jobs in the province, both of which were lower figures than those for the regions where Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz are located in their respective provinces.

The wealth generated compared to the previous year, value added, performed similarly to sales in the province of Gipuzkoa, with an increase of 14.5%, thus placing it below Bizkaia (21.9%) and above Álava (11.2%). Among its regions, the largest growth in value added occurred in Alto Deba, where it was 21.0% higher than in 2020, followed by Donostialdea, up 14.8%, Urola Kosta, with 12.9%, Tolosaldea (12.8%), Goierri (12.6%), Bajo Deba (11.7%) and, lastly, the region of Bajo Bidasoa, which saw the smallest positive variation, as its value added increased by 9.8%.

Methodological note:

The sectorisation used is the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-2009), with B (extractive industries) and C (manufacturing industries) being the only sections included in this disaggregation by regions.

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