It includes three former historic French provinces in the north-east of the traditional Basque Country totalling 2, km 2 1, sq mi : Lower Navarre French: Basse-Navarre ; Basque: Nafarroa Beherea , until nominally Kingdom of Navarre , with 1, km 2 sq mi ; Labourd Lapurdi , with km 2 sq mi ; Soule Zuberoa , with km 2 sq mi.
The population included in the Basque Municipal Community amounts to , inhabitants distributed in municipalities. The French Basque Country included three pre-existing historic territories before the departmental division of France in , with a few modifications:. It is the political capital of its subprefecture and economic capital of the largest region, which includes the French Basque country and the south of Landes.
A slow but continuous French institutional evolution has been produced as a response to the historical claims of the French Basque Country.
These are based on the notion of a country in the traditional sense, as a society belonging to a place, culture, etc.
The creation of an institution of greater substance than what was represented by the geographical organization of pays and more specifically of a Basque department, has been a constant element during that last decades in elected posts for the main political parties, with representation from the French Socialist Party , The Republicans , and nationalist parties.
