Located in the south of Europe, south of France and north of Spain, the Basque Country, Euskal Herria, is one of the most dynamic and advanced economies in the European Union.
The Basque Country is a territory located on the Atlantic coast on both sides of the Pyrenees that shares important features of cultural, social and economic identity. Of unknown origin, Basque is the language of this land, and is one of the oldest in Europe. Today, it shares its official use with the Spanish language and also with French in the various territories in which it is present. This region has three million inhabitants in France and Spain, spread over three different legal-administrative territories: Euskadi, Navarre and Iparralde.
‘Euskadi’ or “Basque Country” is an Autonomous Community in Spain with an extensive self-government, which has a long-standing industrial tradition of reference at national and European level. With 2.2 million inhabitants, the industrial sector employs 21% of the active population, well above the Spanish average of 14%. Furthermore, the Basque Country is characterized by its specialization in Industry 4.0, boosted by the Basque Government’s investment in R&D, reaching 2.2% of GDP and surpassing the rest of the Autonomous Regions of Spain.
Navarre, or ‘Nafarroa’, is another Autonomous Community with a population of around 700,000 people. Its relatively low demographic weight at the national level does not correspond to its economic importance, since in addition to being one of the regions with the highest GDP per capita in Spain, it has an important industrial sector, particularly in the automotive and metallurgy sectors.
For its part, ‘Iparralde’, also known as the French Basque Country, is made up of the three historical provinces of Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa, although today they are incorporated into the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is a sparsely populated territory (300,000 inhabitants), characterized by the proliferation of small businesses (97% of the total). Moreover, although services and construction account for most of the economic activity, industry accounts for 9.1%, practically in line with the rest of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
On the other hand, the different regions of the Basque Country have their own reference capital cities:
– Euskadi, País Vasco
Bizkaia (Bilbao)
Gipuzkoa (Donostia – San Sebastián)
Araba (Vitoria – Gasteiz)
– Navarra, Nafarroa
(Pamplona – Iruña)
– Iparralde, Pays Basque en Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Lapurdi o Labourd (Baiona – Bayonne)
Nafarroa Beherea o Basse-Navarre (Saint Jean Pied de Port – Donibane Garazi)
Zuberoa o Soule (Maule – Mauleon