2496: Basque Demographics for the Future Oct 12, 2021

Basque has survived the Indo-European invasions of Celts and later Romans, Spanish and French empires, but faces certain other problems today. The Spanish government these days is now much more supportive of the language, and now in Basque Autonomous community, the largest percentage of surveyed speakers belong to 16–24 age range at 57.5% of the overall population—likely even higher with those younger—as opposed to the over 65 range, which is only at 25%. This will basically secure the language's vitality for the next generations, and is reflective of the anti-Basque policies of the Franco regime. In French Basque Community however, the largest demographic of speakers is the over-65 range, and of that it is only 32.4%. This is a bad sign in general for any language development, as this is past the age of raising children and thus past the time for native transmission.