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It is very difficult to get up-to-date information on
the North Basque Country. INSEE, the French national
statistics and economic studies institute,
very occasionally provides data for all towns in the
North Basque Country and the latest information
available so far dates back to 1999. This institute
provided new data in 2009, corresponding to 2006,
which helps us to construct a more up-to-date image
of the North Basque Country. It is this image that
is demonstrated in this Gaindegia publication entitled
Socio-economic Portrait of the North Basque
Country and, consequently, it helps us to project an
up-to-date overall view of the whole Basque Country.
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The latest
data collected
by INSEE has revealed
that the different territories
in the Basque
Country play host to similar
problems, and therefore,
the challenges are also practically
the same. The latest
data reflects a modern society
with a developed economy,
although its population
is aging. Rural areas are
becoming depopulated, urban
nuclei are growing, the
size of family units is falling,
the service sector is
consolidating and industry
and traditional activities are weakening. The desertion
of the most Basque speaking areas, the departure
of qualified young people abroad, and the weakening of
the industrial structure are particularly worrying aspects
in the North Basque Country. This data establishes future
challenges, providing clues about where to and how to tackle
the future of the territory
Eneko Gorri led the work for Gaindegia, helped by Lontzi
Amado, Jokin Zaldumbide, Jean Joel Ferrand, Xabier
Harlouxet and Xabier Itcaina. Finally, Solange Mariluz and
Imanol Esnaola were in charge of its publication. To make
the vast amount of data provided by INSEE more accessible
for readers, they organised their work systematically and
made a wide selection of information. This is a descriptive
work that does not go into any further analysis although it
attempts to contrast the data from the North Basque
Country with the territories around it: most of it looks at information
for the area as a whole and in other
cases it considers it by department or district.
All this information has been divided into
seven chapters. The first chapter compiles
data on the population, indicating that inland
villages are emptying, whilst the population
along the coast is rising and it analyses the demographic
structure.
The second chapter, on the other hand,
studies families. It shows that couples prevail
in the North Basque Country, as family units
become increasingly smaller and later it describes
the different family ties. Training is
the topic of the third chapter revealing the
higher percentage of women receiving
schooling and drawing a rough outline of who has the highest levels
of education.
The fourth chapter analyses the population's activity. It studies
activity and employment, by sector and socio-professional
categories and among other aspects it demonstrates that unemployment
hits young people, women and immigrants particularly
hard. Alternately, the fifth chapter provides data on employment
and analyses working conditions, working hours, situation of women
and salaries.
The sixth chapter focuses on companies, assessing their dynamics,
the number of employees and the weight of some sectors.
Finally, the seventh and last chapter revolves around the topic
of housing: it establishes that there are an increasing number
of houses, particularly second homes, and analyses their age.
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