Press Release 12/12/2023

POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS. POPULATION STRUCTURE. 01/01/2023

In 2023, 203,662 foreign nationals resided in the Basque Country, 9.3% of the total population

The foreign-born population rose to 277,911 people, 8.7% more than a year ago

The number of foreign nationals residing in the Basque Country stood at 203,662 on 1 January 2023, 9.1% more than on the same date in 2022, according to Eustat data. This group accounted for 9.3% of the population (0.8 percentage points more than a year ago), a lower percentage than the 12.6% recorded for the Autonomous Regions as a whole. On the same date, 277,911 people born abroad resided in the Basque Country, 12.7% of the total population, a higher percentage than a year ago (11.7%), but lower than that for Spain as a whole (16.9%).

The percentage of foreign nationals varied slightly between provinces: Álava had the highest proportion with 10.6% (0.6 percentage points more than in 2022), followed by Gipuzkoa with 9.3% (0.7 points more) and finally, Bizkaia, with 8.8% (0.7 points more).

If we consider the continent, Latin Americans represented 44.1% of foreign nationals (3.3 points more than in 2022).

The countries with the greatest representation in this group were Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela and Paraguay, making up 29.6% of the total number of foreign nationals, and 67.1% of Latin American nationals. Regarding sex, 50.1% of foreign residents and 58.8% of Latin American residents were women.

African countries accounted for 25.1% of the foreign population in the Basque Country, 2.1 points less than in 2022, with more than half coming from Morocco (54.1%). This was followed by Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria, at 13.4%, 10.4% and 8.1%, respectively. These four nationalities represented more than 86% of those with African nationality, and over 21% of all foreign nationals. If we look at distribution by sex, there was a predominance of men, with 62.4% of the total.

European nationals residing in the Basque Country accounted for 22.8% of all foreign nationals, 0.6 points less than in 2022. Romania stood out in this group, representing 9.1% of foreign nationals and 40% of Europeans. In second place, albeit at some distance from Romania, was Portugal, making up 13.4% of European nationals in the Basque Country. Ukraine was in third place with 11.2%. In this group, both sexes had a similar presence, the percentage of men being slightly higher.

In last place were nationals from Asia and Oceania, accounting for 8% of foreign residents. Notably, almost the only countries of origin from this region were Pakistan and China, which accounted for 73.5% of the group.

Latin Americans were in the majority in all three provinces, although there were notable differences between them.

In Bizkaia, Latin Americans represented the greatest proportion of foreign residents (48.3% of the total), followed by Africans (23.4%) and Europeans (20.7%).

In Gipuzkoa, Latin Americans were once again clearly in the majority, accounting for 41.7% of the total, followed by Europeans (28.1%) and Africans (22%).

Meanwhile, in Álava, the percentages of people with Latin American and African nationality were very similar (36.4% and 36% respectively), followed distantly by Europeans (19%) and Asians (8.6%). It is worth highlighting that this is the first time the number of Latin American nationals has exceeded the number of Africans, given that 5 years earlier there were 1.5 Africans for every Latin American.

The number of people born abroad exceeded 277,000

On 1 January 2023, the number of people born abroad residing in the Basque Country stood at 277,911 and accounted for 12.7% of the total population. The proportion for Spain was 16.9%. Therefore, in this respect, the Basque Country was placed between Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia, with 12.9% and 11.7% 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 16.1%; in Bilbao it stood at 15.4% and in San Sebastián it reached 14% 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, only 17 had over 10,000 inhabitants. Navaridas and Ordizia had the highest percentages, with 20.9% and 20.1%, respectively. Next were Baños de Ebro (18.9%) and Leza (18.1%). On the other hand, there were three municipalities in the Basque Country where the percentage of the resident population born abroad was less than 3%: Orexa and Beizama in Gipuzkoa, and Garai in Bizkaia. Another 19 municipalities, all of them sparsely populated, saw percentages below 5% (only Berastegi, Zierbena, Gamiz-Fika, Aiara and Aramaio had more than 1,000 inhabitants).

91,195 foreign-born residents had Spanish nationality

On 1 January 2023, 91,195 foreign-born residents in the Basque Country had acquired Spanish nationality or already had it due to family or other reasons. Of this number, 69.4% came from Latin America. Among them, three countries accounted for almost 45% of people in this situation: Colombia (21.7%), Bolivia (12%) and Ecuador (11.1%).

Next were those born in other European countries, representing 14.5% of the total. Of those, over a third were born in France (30.6%), 14% in Portugal and in third place were those born in Germany, who accounted for 11.2%.

13.9% of people who acquired Spanish nationality came from African countries and of those, more than half were born in Morocco (58.8%), followed by those born in Algeria, at 14.7%.

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 33.5, a significantly lower figure than that of residents with Spanish nationality, which was 46.8. The average age of the Basque population as a whole was 45.6.

Meanwhile, if instead of looking at nationality we take into account 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 65.3, was that born in the rest of Spain. It was followed by the population born in the Basque Country, with an average age of 42.3 and, lastly, people born abroad, with an average age of 38.

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