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Graduate in Economic Sciences, Actuarial Sciences and Psychology Masters in the Inland Revenue and Public Administrations |
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These values have led to a situation where the Basque Country has become a society ruled by heavy handed legislation. General insecurity in the standard of living for the vast majority of the population: immigrants, women, young people, old people, has occurred as a result of the Public Sector's active intervention, by passing laws that deregulate and remove protection from the employment market and devalue social protection. However, this reality is revealed within statistical averages that cancel out any extremes or inequality, so it is important now to analyse the Basque Country's structural indicators from its back room.
The population is continuing its progressive rise thanks to migration. There are 3,089,600 people spread throughout its territory, representing a density of 150.2 persons/km2, compared to 116 in the EU. However, this data is just one way of presenting the figures as the real situation involves more than 70% of the total population living in the Basque capitals.
Constant aging, 1.5 points higher than the EU average, demonstrates that 18.6% of the population is over 65. This collective is most affected by the design of Euskal Hiria, as they are being left behind in population nuclei that are being excluded from this design. They are therefore suffering to a large extent from spatial exclusion linked to access to most of the services and leisure.
The birth rate has recovered by more than one point over the last decade, now standing at 10.26 births for every 1000 inhabitants. This has raised the weight of the collective of minors under 14 years old, who represent 13.38% although still 2.3 points below the EU average.
However, economic indicators become particularly important in the midst of a downturn. The increase in GDP throughout the decade has put the Basque Country annual income per inhabitant at 33,014€, 33% higher than the EU However the truth is that the minimum wage (8,736 €) , the average pension (12,180 €) or the salaries of the low-paid majority (young people, women, immigrants) are a long way from this figure. The average only hides the great concentration of wealth in the Basque Country (much higher than any country in the EU) leading to a situation where 34.4% of young people aged between 18-44 years old cannot leave their parental home because they do not have sufficient economic resources.
Without forgetting that spending on social protection as a percentage of Basque Country GDP stands almost 10 points below EU figures, reflected in much lower pensions, and other social spending indicators (education, health, housing, family).
Productivity stands at 72,361€ per employee, 29% higher than the EU. The current problem in our economy is not low productivity but low consumption and remedial measures should not involve freezing salaries and destroying jobs but, on the contrary, letting employees feel the benefit of this productivity and creating new jobs to provide an incentive for consumption.
Spending on research and development (RTD) standing at 1.79% of GDP is a long way from the European target of 3% for 2010, far below the EU average and a million miles away from Sweden or Finland that invest more than double the Basque Country figure.
Although business investment (23.17%) has dropped, it is still higher than the EU, Japan or USA although we should remember that this value represents the total business investment, including financial investments or investments in property, and given their speculative nature, particularly in the Basque real estate sector, this type of business investment was higher in the Basque Country than in the EU.
The general employment rate, 63.81% (2009) is a little lower than the EU figures, and female employment is separating off from the general average, 56.40%, and is lower than the EU figure. However, this rate hides the dual nature of employment, involving a work sector protected by trade union agreement rights, seniority, benefit plans, etc; and an increasing number of workers in insecure situations, with diminishing salaries and rights. Employers seem to be making the most of this downturn to "clean up" their workforce and, as far as possible, get rid of the top layer of workers (early retirements, incentives for redundancy, downsizing plans) to be replaced (when "production circumstances improve") by insecure workers.
These double standards have led to the crisis in the Basque Country destroying more employment than in the EU, with an unemployment rate that is going to go from being the lowest in the EU to double its previous figure within the space of two years. We can expect the 2009 data to alter this comparison by reflecting an employment rate (both general and female) that is lower than the EU. Who would believe that science and technology training rates (22.87% in 2006) are over the EU average?
It stands out that among the collective aged 55 to 65, the employment rate of 44.69% is almost a third lower than the average (affected by early retirements, long term unemployment); this data can shed light on the pensions debate, just by incorporating this collective into the work market, their contribution would be much greater than extending retirement age by 2 years.
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In the document Pdf in addition to the analysis the main gallery of indicators updated. |
Return to the main index.
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| GR09_INDICATORS_GALERY.pdf | 556.51 KB |
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