Population change in a Basque rural municipality (Oiartzun, Spain, 1930-1980): baserritarrak and kaletarrak

Abstract

Industrialization, the market economy, migration and the new values of modernity have conditioned population change in twentieth-century Basque Country (Spain). In general, demographic studies use to classify Basque provinces as urban areas, concealing thus the population disparities that took place within these territories both at municipal and sub-municipal levels, as well as across the urbanrural divide. This article takes an sub-municipal approach to describe and analyze the consequences that modernity, industrialization and migration have had on changes in the rural population (baserritarrak) and the urban population (kaletarrak). The article focuses primarily on the former in the Basque municipality of Oiartzun, for the period 1930-1980.