Basque, the co-official language of the the Basque Countryis losing ground in several areas of the autonomous community. Despite its importance as a pillar of Basque identity, more and more people choose Spanish in their daily lives. According to data from Basque Institute of Statistics (Eustat)barely 43.3% of the community’s inhabitants use Basque preferably or exclusively.
This trend is especially accentuated in urban areas, where the use of Basque is experiencing a clear decline compared to Spanish. It is the case of Victoriawhere only 2.5% use exclusively or much more frequently the autonomous language to communicate. The capital of Álava is positioned as the city with the fewest ‘Basque speakers’: approximately 6,000 people out of almost 250,000 inhabitants.
The situation of Basque in the rest of the Basque cities
The decline in the use of Basque is not limited to the capital of Alava. In Bilbao, the most populated city in the Basque Country, the panorama is also alarming: of its nearly 343,000 residents, only 3.6% use Basque exclusivelymaking the Basque language a minority option in the capital of Biscay.
The city of San Sebastián, known for its strong link with Basque culture, does not escape this trend. Only 14.1% of its population uses Basque as their main language. Although this percentage exceeds that of Vitoria or Bilbao, it is still low.
