PUNTUEUS OBSERVATORY
THE PUNTUEUS OBSERVATORY AIMS TO ANALYZE THE SITUATION OF THE BASQUE LANGUAGE ON THE INTERNET, AS WELL AS THE STATUS AND EVOLUTION OF THE .EUS DOMAIN. THIS STUDY PROVIDES THE FOUNDATION FOR PROMOTING THE NECESSARY STRATEGIES AND POLICIES TO STRENGTHEN THE BASQUE LANGUAGE IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT.
THE BASQUE LANGUAGE ON THE INTERNET IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY – 2025
The 2025 study by the PUNTUEUS Observatory has provided the most accurate picture of the Basque internet to date. In fact, thanks to the collaboration with The Bright Initiative powered by Bright Data, the measurement methodology has been improved; incorporating their technology has made it possible to analyze thousands of websites that could not be detected until now, and this has revealed an even more realistic figure: 20% of active websites in the Basque Country have some content in Basque. Until now, we thought that 15% of websites were in Basque, but we have been able to find out that there are more. The described increase corresponds to the technical visibility of previously hidden content.
The main positive trend in the digital presence of Basque lies in user habits (a 0.6% increase), as the number of people who have their browser set to Basque continues to grow, despite the figure being modest. The language setting of browsers is a fundamental digital signal that directly impacts content supply and reflects the digital awareness of the Basque community.
Once again, the results show that choosing one domain over another affects language use. Thus, the .EUS domain is the main stronghold for Basque, with 74% of websites using the language. In contrast, the use of Basque in generic domains like .COM or .ES is much lower, at 15.3% and 9.8%, respectively. Therefore, the importance of the .EUS domain in ensuring the digital vitality of Basque is evident.
EVOLUTION OF THE .EUS DOMAIN – 2025
The .EUS domain has maintained a solid growth path in 2025, accumulating 16,393 domain names. This growth rate (4.6%) is almost four times higher than the average of the main global gTLDs (1.2%), confirming the strength and dynamism of the Basque digital identity. In addition, .EUS has particularly loyal users and significantly exceeds market trends, showing it to be a very stable community: in the case of .EUS domains, almost 9 out of 10 renew every year; in other TLDs or generic domains, however, only about 7 out of 10 renew the domain.
The use of the domain has spread to all areas of society. Looking at the typological distribution, companies predominate, but associations, public institutions, and projects in the fields of education and the Basque language also carry significant weight.
Geographically, too, .EUS structures the entire Basque Country. Although Gipuzkoa (40.3%) and Bizkaia (32.3%) have a greater weight, the presence in Álava, Navarre, and the Northern Basque Country is noteworthy.
Sponsors
