The average age of the Basque population is higher than the European and Spanish averages, but it is not the autonomous community in Spain with the highest figure.
The average age of the population of EU member states in 2019 exceeded 40 years of age; more specifically, it stood at 43.3.
The population of Italy has the highest average age (46.7), followed by Germany (46.0). On the other hand, Ireland (37.7), Cyprus (37.7) and Luxembourg (39.5) are the only countries with an average age below 40.
The Basque Country has the same average age as Italy (46.7) which places it, together with Italy, at the top of the European list in terms of ageing population.
The average age for Spain stands at 44.0; i.e. slightly higher than the European average. Within Spain, Asturias (49.6) and Castilla y León (48.8) are the autonomous communities with the highest figures. Only the population of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla have an average age below 40 (37.2 and 34.2, respectively).
As we can see, although the Basque Country exceeds the Spanish average, with an average age of 46.7, it is not the autonomous community with the oldest population. What we do find is that the autonomous communities on the north coast of Spain show the highest average ages in Spain.
Within the Basque Country, Bizkaia is the province with the highest average age at 47.3; however, there are no major differences between provinces.
The trend over the last five years has been towards ageing in all the provinces.
However, these figures are well above the world average. According to United Nations (UN) data for 2015, the average age of the world’s population was 29.6, although there are striking differences by continent. While the average age in Africa was 19.7, the European average exceeded 40 years of age (42.5, to be exact). Latin America and the Caribbean had an average age of 31.0, while the figure for North America stood at 38.6 years of age. In Asia, on the other hand, the average age was 32.0 and in Oceania, it stood at 33.4.
These data have been analysed by the Basque Youth Observatory based on the population statistics of Eurostat, the European Statistical Office, and data from the United Nations (UN).