ESS Bilbao Head Office Gran Vía, 35 - 2nd floor 48009 Bilbao - SPAIN Phone: +34 94 607 66 20 Fax: +34 94 607 66 21 ESS Bilbao R&D Centre Bizkaia Technology Park Laida Bidea, Building 201-Gate 4 48170 Zamudio - SPAIN Phone: +34 94 607 68 52 Fax: +34 94 607 66 21 [email protected] www.essbilbao.com Quality of Life in the Basque Country Photography: © Mikel Arrazola © Martin Presumido Szymczak Index 1 Introduction 4 2 Human Development Index (HDI) 5 2.1 HDI: Health sub-index 6 2.2 HDI: Knowledge sub-index 8 2.3 HDI: Standard of living sub-index 10 3 Other indicators: Public safety 12 4 The Basque Country at a glance 14 4.1 A modern, strategically-located region 14 4.2 Health system 18 4.3 Scientific environment 19 4.4 Schooling and education 22 4.5 Nature and the environment 24 4.6 Culture, leisure and sports 26 5 Conclusions 31 6 Useful links 32 Sources 33 Table 1. Basic indicators of the Human Development Index. 5 Table 2. Causes of Death by region. Crude death rate (per 100,000 inhabitants) in 2006. 7 Table 3. Educational levels of the labour force. 9 Table 4. Crime Rate in the European Union (per 1000 people). 13 Figure 1. Human Development Index (HDI). 5 Figure 2. Life Expectancy at Birth. 6 Figure 3. Victims in road accidents: deaths per million inhabitants 2006. 8 Figure 4. Education Index. 8 Figure 5. Population with tertiary education. 9 Figure 6. GDP per capita (PPP US$) 10 Figure 7. GDP per capita (USD/Population) in the European regions. 10 Figure 8. GDP yearly growth in the European regions. 1995-2005. 11 Figure 9. Employment rates in the European regions. 11 Figure 10. Unemployment rates in the European regions. 11 Figure 11. Productivity per worker in Europe (EU 27 average=100). 11 Figure 12. Intentional homicide rate per 100,000 population. 12 Figure 13. Regional crime against the property: Europe 13 1. Introduction “Quality of life” is a broad concept used to measure the Being considerably different from other Spanish regions, well-being of a society using a number of different the Basque Country's high quality of life and social indicators. The fundamental aim of this study is to provide connectedness are highly appreciated and make it an information on some of these indicators with reference attractive place to live and work. to the Basque Country and to give an idea of the wide The following document analyses different social and range of opportunities offered by this territory. economic indicators in order to compare the quality of life Quality of life in Spain has improved greatly over recent in the Basque Country with other developed countries. years, with huge increases in its economic and social Section 2 describes the Human Development Index and indicators. its components and compares this with other European The Basque Country, which stradles the border between countries and regions. Section 3 sets out the public safety France and the rest of Spanish territory, is known as one indicators, and section 4 describes several aspects of the of the wealthiest autonomous regions in the country and daily life in the Basque Country. Finally, section 5 contains is famous for its important R&D achievements, high a number of concluding remarks. productivity, the important developments in its educational system, high GDP per capita, high quality health care, and its extensive offer of leisure and sport activities. 4 SPAIN BASQUE COUNTRY Quality of Life in the Basque Country. Introduction 2. Human Development Index (HDI) In order to measure the level of world development, the Consistently good results in the three areas covered by United Nations’ global development programme (UNDP) the Human Development Index have led to the region's created the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite high position among developed countries. indicator that measures a country’s or region’s average achievements in basic aspects of human development. As can be seen in Table 1, life expectancy at birth in the UNDP publishes an annual comparative study of nearly Basque Country is one of the highest in Europe, standing 180 countries, measuring social and economic wellbeing at 80.8 years, bettered only by Switzerland with 81.3 years. of the population, evaluating quality-of-life levels using The longevity indexes of the Basque Country come close non-market activities. Using the same methodology, to Iceland (81.5) and Australia (80.9), although all of them EUSTAT (Basque Statistics Institute) calculates the HDI are below Japan, which has the highest index in the world and sub-indices for the Basque Country. with 82.3 years. The HDI is made up of three basic indicators: health (life The high education levels measured in terms of adult expectancy at birth), knowledge (adult literacy rate, gross literacy and combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio), and standard of living (GDP per capita). enrolment ratio, place the Basque education index ahead According to the 2007 human development classification, of many developed countries, falling just short of an index the Basque Country is among the most developed countries of 1. in the world (Figure 1) [1]. It ranks second in the European HDI classification behind Norway, with only 0.004 points The Basque Country is also among the countries with the of difference. The region's indicator, 0.964, exceeds those highest GDP per capita in Europe: measured in purchasing 5 of such high-ranking countries as Sweden, France or the power parity US dollars (PPP US $) the Basque GDP per UK (0.956, 0.952 and 0.946 respectively). inhabitant amounts to 34,026 US $ per year, being above The Basque Country has made considerable efforts to the GDP per capita of the UK (33,238 US$), Finland (32,153 increase the quality of life of the population over the last US $), or Germany (29,461 US $). The most advanced few years: the HDI rose from 0.940 in 2001 (below Norway, country in terms of GDP per capita is Luxembourg (60,228 Luxemburg, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, the US $), which doubles the results of all European countries. Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark) to 0.964 in 2007, with notable progress in all its components. Table 1. Human Development Index basic indicators Figure 1. Human Development Index (HDI) Life expectancy Education Per Capita Norway at birth index GDP PPP (US$) Basque Country Ireland Basque Country 80.80 0.988 34,026 Sweden Switzerland Switzerland 81.30 0.,946 35,633 Netherlands Spain 80.50 0.987 27,169 France Sweden 80.50 0.978 32,525 Finland Italy 80.30 0.958 28,529 Spain Denmark France 80.20 0.982 30,386 Austria Norway 79.80 0.991 41,420 UK Austria 79.40 0.966 33,700 Belgium Luxembourg Netherlands 79.20 0.988 32,684 Italy Germany 79.10 0.953 29,461 Germany United Kingdom 79.00 0.970 33,238 Greece Finland 78.90 0.993 32,153 0.900 0.910 0.920 0.930 0.940 0.950 0.960 0.970 Grecee 78.90 0.970 23,381 Belgium 78.80 0.977 32,119 Source: Data for selected countries from UNDP report 2007 (data corresponds to year 2005) Ireland 78.40 0.993 38,505 Data for the Basque Country from Eustat 2007 (data corresponds to year 2005). Luxembourg 78.40 0.942 60,228 Denmark 77.90 0.993 33,973 [1] In order to make meaningful international comparisons and Source: Data for selected countries from UNDP report 2007 due to data availability, the Basque Country will be referred (data corresponds to year 2005.) indistinctly as a country or a region in what follows. Data for the Basque Country from EUSTAT 2007 (data corresponds to year 2005). Quality of Life in the Basque Country. Human Development Index (HDI) In the following subsections the three sub-indices are Life expectancy at birth in the Basque Country is 80.8 analysed in more detail. years (Figure 2), the sixth highest rate in the world. Switzerland, which, traditionally, is the country with the highest life expectancy indicator, is only 0.5 years ahead. 2.1. HDI: Health sub-index Other developed countries famous for their high quality of life have a lower longevity rate. According to the table, Sweden (80.5), Italy (80.3) and France (80.2) have life expectancy rates below that of the Basque Country. The health indicator determines the quality of life of a country and is a primary condition for developing a welfare According to the Basque Statistics Institute (EUSTAT), life state. The health sub-index is measured by life expectancy expectancy at birth has increased progressively over the at birth as an indicator of the health and longevity of the last ten years. Thus, in 1995, Basque longevity was 76.1 population. years (72.4 years for men and 79.7 years for women) In many developed countries access to preventive health compared to 80.8 years in 2005, showing an increase in care is an essential right, which makes European longevity life expectancy at birth of 4.7 years. one of the highest in the world. There are several reasons that explain such a high index. First, the Basque Country has one of the lowest death Figure 2. Life expectancy at birth rates in the European Union, so the region's crude death rate per 100,000 inhabitants is 873.5, below the 941.4 rate for EU15. Switzerland Basque Country Table 2 shows death rates due to the 22 main causes by Spain Sweden region per 100,000 inhabitants in 2006.