Northern Basque Country

The French Basque Country or Northern Basque Country (French: Pays basque français, Spanish: País Vasco francés, Basque: Iparralde, i.e. "the North Side") situated within the western part of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques constitutes the north-eastern part of the Basque Country.

With 2,869 km², it is delimited in the north by the department of Landes, in the west by the Bay of Biscay, in the south by the southern Basque Country and in the east by Béarn (although in the Bearnese village of Esquiule Basque is spoken), which is the eastern part of the department. Bayonne and Biarritz (conglomeration BAB) are its chief towns. It is a popular tourist destination and is somewhat distinct from neighbouring parts of either France or the southern Basque Country, since it was not industrialized as Biscay or Gipuzkoa and remained agricultural and a beach destination.

Basques describe the northern Basque Country as the union of three "French provinces" in the northeast of the traditional Basque Country:

• Lower Navarre (Nafarroa Beherea in Basque, Basse-Navarre in French), until 1789 kingdom of Navarre (linked to the kings of France). 1,284 km².
• Labourd (Lapurdi in Basque). 800 km².
• Soule (Zuberoa in Basque). 785 km².

Its Basque name is Iparralde ("Northern Side") while the part of the Basque Country located in Spain is called Hegoalde ("Southern Side").

Its population has been: 126,493 (in 1801); 162,365 (1851); 226,749 (1979) (79% in Labourd, 13% in Lower Navarre, 8% in Soule); 259,850 (1990) (81%; 13%; 6% respectively); 262,000 (1999 census).

According to an inquiry of 2006, 22.5% were bilinguals (French-Basque), 8.6% were French-speakers who understand Basque, and 68.9% were not Basque-speakers. But the results were very different in the three zones; in the inner land (Basse Navarre and Soule) 66.2% speak or understand Basque; in the coast (Labourd) the figure stands at 36.9% ; and in the B.A.B. urban zone (Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz) only 14.2% speak or understand Basque (according to another inquiry, 20% of the B.A.B. people can speak or understand the Gascon language). The proportion of French-Basque bilingual speakers fell from 26.4% in 1996 to 22.5% in 2006.

There is a Basque nationalist political movement, born in 1963 with the Embata mouvement (forbidden in 1974) and now with Abertzaleen Batasuna and others, which seeks a split of Pyrénées-Atlantiques into two French departments: Pays Basque and Béarn; some other nationalist parties are EAJ, EA and Batasuna which have a reduced, almost symbolic presence, especially when compared to the southern Basque Country. These political parties historically receive fewer than 15% of the votes in the district elections.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a paramilitary group called Iparretarrak (the northerners) used violence to seek independence; it has been inactive in recent years.

On January 29, 1997, the area was made an official "pays" of France under the name "Pays Basque", that is, a representative body promoting several activities, but without its own budget.