Editing Bilbao (section)

=== Language ===

The Spanish language is the most used language of the city, followed by the [[Basque language]], which is local to the region. The presence of Basque in the city is less prominent than in other municipalities of the region, such as [[Bermeo]] or [[Lekeitio]]. In 1986, the bilingual Basque-speaking population represented about 28% of the total. However, the number of Basque speakers has experienced a continuous increase since, reaching a figure of 37% in 2001.<ref name="Basque language">{{cite web |url=http://www.bilbao.net/castella/relaciones_ciudadanas/publicaciones/bilbao_en_cifras/2007/euskera.pdf |title=Linguistic competence of the Bilbao population older than 5 years. |author=<!--Not stated--> |year=2001 |website=Bilbao City Hall |publisher=Bilbao Municipal Government |access-date=20 October 2008 |archive-date=1 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001170837/http://www.bilbao.net/castella/relaciones_ciudadanas/publicaciones/bilbao_en_cifras/2007/euskera.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> More than half of the Basque speakers were younger than 30 and lived in the districts of Deusto, Begoña and Abando.<ref name="Basque language" />

According to the data from the 2016 census, the population older than 2 years old registered in the municipality of Bilbao who speaks Basque fluently represents 29% of the total population, while those who can speak it with difficulty represent around 19.95% of the total. Finally, those who cannot speak or understand the language represent the remaining 51.06% of the census.

{| class="wikitable left" style="text-align:right;"
|+Evolution of the Basque-speaking population<ref name="Basque language" /><ref>"Linguistic competence in the capitals", in ''[http://www.euskara.euskadi.net/r59-738/es/contenidos/informacion/argitalpenak/es_6092/adjuntos/MAPAcast.pdf 4th Social-Linguistic Map. 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605100618/http://www.euskara.euskadi.net/r59-738/es/contenidos/informacion/argitalpenak/es_6092/adjuntos/MAPAcast.pdf |date=5 June 2014 }}''. [[Basque Government]] (2009).</ref>
!Group!!1981!!1986!!1991!!1996!!2001!!2006!!2011!!2016
|-
|  style="text-align:left; background:#efefef;"|'''''Bilinguals''''': Able to understand and speak both Basque and Spanish||23.430||33.181||34.429||49.519||51.302||80.903||78.727||97.287
|-
|  style="text-align:left; background:#efefef;"|'''''Passive bilinguals''''': Able to understand Basque but cannot speak it, while able to understand and speak Spanish||47.288||63.598||65.925||66.797||71.189||63.404||96.774||67.004
|-
|  style="text-align:left; background:#efefef;"|'''''Spanish monolinguals''''': Unable to understand or speak Basque, only Spanish
||296.703||266.045||255.210||229.336||212.485||190.483||166.869||171.441
|- style="background:#efefef;"
|align=left|'''Population'''||'''367.421'''||'''362.824'''||'''355.564'''||'''345.652'''||'''334.976'''||'''334.790'''||'''342.370'''||'''335.732'''
|}