General Information

Craggy and sheer faced coasts The Basque Country lies in the north of Spain and basks on the Cantabrian coast. It borders the Cantabrian sea in the north, Navarre in the east, La Rioja in the south, and Castile and Leon and Cantabria in the west.

The Basque coast has abundant cliffs and sheer rock faces. The most important feature of its orography is formed by the so-called Montes Vascos (Basque Mountains), to the south of which stretches the plain called the Vitoria Plain or the Concha de álava (Shell of álava). The northern part of the region has numerous valleys that run parallel with the coast. The final spurs of the Pyrenees can be found in the north east of the region on the border with France. The Montes Vascos connect the Pyrenees with the first few spurs of the Cantabrian mountain range in the west, where the first sierras of the range start to appear. In spite of the many mountains in the region, the altitude of its peaks is relatively low. The most significant is Gorbea Peak at 1,544 metres high, and is the highest summit in the Basque country. Most of the Basque Country’s water supply comes from Cantabria. The most notable rivers in the region include Bidasoa, Urumea, Oria, Urola, Deva, Ibaizabal and el Nervion, that are all generally short with copious amounts of water flowing along their banks and ending up in deep estuaries. In the south the Bayas and the Zadorra rivers are tributaries of the river Ebro.

Transportation

Excellent transport networks The Basque infrastructure is extremely well developed for all types of transport: including all kinds of road, rail, air and sea journeys. The road network is renowned for its peninsular intersection connecting the north with the south (Irun-Madrid) and east with west (Barcelona-Zaragoza-Cantabria), as well as the A-1 road that crosses the whole region. The large merchant ports of the Basque Country are located in Bilbao and Pasajes. There are also another fifteen smaller ports in the region. Passenger and freight air traffic can be found on the outskirts of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián. The train network is linked to the rest of Spain by RENFE. Regional railways are run by FEVE and Eusko Tren.

Administration

Regional and Historic Administration This is comprised of three provinces that include: Alava (Araba), Guipuzcoa (Gipuzkoa) and Biscay (Bizkaia). The Basque political administration is organised in two different ways: Regional administration and historic administration. The capital is Vitoria or Gasteiz as it is known in Basque.

The Regional Administration is made up of the Basque Government and the Basque Parliament, while the historic administration is made up of general councils within the region that include: Biscay, Alava and Guipuzcoa, that also have there own historic councils. The Basque Autonomy Statute was approved in December 1979, and states that the autonomous region is made up of “historic territoriesÝ that include Alava, Guipuzcoa and Biscay. It also states that the native language of the Basques (Euskera), must be officially recognised along with Spanish. The Basque parliament is made up of 75 seats, and 25 of these seats correspond to each of the aforementioned historic territories. The members of the Basque parliament are elected every four years.

Population

Population density The population of this autonomous region according to figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) as of the 1st of January 2004, after having reviewed the Inhabitants register, is 2,115,279.

The breakdown by province is as follows: Alava: 295,905 inhabitants, Guipuzcoa: 686,513 inhabitants and Biscay: 1,132,861 inhabitants. This autonomous region experienced a population boom throughout the twentieth century. The increase was most notable during the fifties. The Basque Country is noted for having a high population density, which can be clearly seen in the coastal provinces of Biscay and Guipuzcoa.

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