What’s the population of Euskal Herria? How many municipalities does it comprise? What is the working population? What are the most relevant socio-economic factors? What’s our situation with respect to Europe? While we have often asked ourselves these and many other questions, we have had no answer to most of them until now. We could even say that although we know who we are, we still don’t know what we are. Today there are a number of statistical figures helping us to complete the socio-economic picture of Euskal Herria, although this information is dotted here and there throughout the different statistical services operating in our country.

The aim of the Euskal Herria Databank is to end this situation. The information included in the Databank is the fruit of having studied and collected the data produced by public statistics institutes. This is of course a normal factor, given that Euskal Herria does not yet have its own statistics service. Our intention is to offer exact, complete, comparative and quality information to all those wishing to know more about the socio-economic reality of Euskal Herria. Furthermore, the Databank has been created with a view to serving as an efficient tool for all those attempting to articulate and develop Euskal Herria.

The Databank has been created to meet the needs of Basque municipalities. It was the Assembly of the Basque Elect and Municipalities which took the first steps in this respect, meaning that the project exists thanks to the agents who work to ensure that Euskal Herria advances. The Gaindegia Association has taken it upon itself to create, update and distribute information from this extremely necessary tool.

This is a tool born to serve those who participate or wish to participate in the construction and development of Euskal Herria, whether they be individuals, social bodies or institutions. The aim of the Databank is to explain Euskal Herria in the widest and most rigorous fashion possible. The specificity of the data, their crudeness we could say, only gives us the bare facts. Their use, interpretation, evolution, distribution and the initiatives deriving from their exploitation is what at the end of the day will simplify the task of getting to know a more complete, renovated and unified Euskal Herria.

This said, the Euskal Herria Databank cannot be considered as a series of data or a static snapshot; it requires the participation of agents from different areas. In the first place, to make use of it as a tool, and secondly, to improve it, correct potential errors, feed it, complete it with new data. At the end of the day, the Euskal Herria Databank which we now offer you has to serve to make feasible this Euskal Herria that so many men and women work to build by the day; it’s everyone’s responsibility.