How Many People in the Basque Country Actually Speak Euskara?

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I recently read an interesting study from 2016 about the prevalence of Euskara in the Basque Country across all 7 provinces.

The study was funded by Eusko Jaurlaritza (the Basque Government), Euskarabidea (Government of Navarra), and Euskararen Erakunde Publikoa (the Public Office of Euskara).

I’ve laid out the main findings of the study in this infographic. Feel free to share it with your friends on social media!

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</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p><strong>Please include attribution to hellabasque.org with this graphic.</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p><a href=’http://www.hellabasque.org/euskara/’><img src=’http://www.hellabasque.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Euskara-Infographic-2<span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”></span>.png’ alt=’Euskara Speakers in the Basque Country’ width=’800px’ border=’0′ /></a></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <p>

The infographic covers the study’s key findings, but you can access the full research paper here.

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Here are some more things I found interesting in the study that I didn’t have space to include in the infographic:

• Hegoalde (Southern Basque Country made up of Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba, and Nafarroa) has a younger population of Euskara speakers, while in Iparralde (Northern Basque Country made up of Lapurdi, Baxenabarre, and Xiberoa) Euskara speakers are mostly 65+ years of age.
• While Euskara speakers have been on the rise in the 3 provinces that make up Euskadi (the Basque Autonomous Community comprised of Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Araba), Euskara is on the decline in the provinces of Iparralde and pretty stagnant in Nafarroa.
• Of the people who can speak Euskara, only about a quarter use it regularly. 69% of bilingual Euskara speakers use another language always or almost always. Only 16.8% of Euskara speakers report using Euskara as much or more than another language.
• The Basque province with the smallest percentage of Euskara speakers is Lapurdi with only 16.1% of the population able to speak Euskara. The highest percentage is in Gipuzkoa, with 50.6% of the population speaking Euskara.

While I’m notoriously known for not speaking Euskara (yes, I know, Hella Basque FAIL), I still feel invested in the Basque language persisting in the Basque Country.

I’m glad to see that Euskara is on the rise in the Basque Country, although there’s a long way to go still before the majority of Basques are able to speak Euskara on a regular basis.

Are you surprised by the results of this study? Let us know in the comments.

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