The ranking holds 3 schools with an international accreditation or an authorised programme. International Baccalaureate programmes are taught at 2 of them. A year of school costs from €5 900 to €9 438.
We do not take reviews from maps and directories: their terms forbid it, and nobody checks the quality there. Everything below comes from the official registers of the accrediting organisations and from the schools' own sites, and every fact carries its source and the date of the check.
| Cheapest | $6 665 a year | Deutsche Schule Bilbao - Colegio Alemán de Bilbao |
| Median | $10 662 a year | top of the fee range at 1 school with a published fee |
| Most expensive | $10 662 a year | Deutsche Schule Bilbao - Colegio Alemán de Bilbao |
| Free | 1 school | IES Botikazar BHI |
Figures are converted to dollars at a weekly rate; schools publish their fees in their own currency. One-off charges, meals, transport and uniform are not included unless the school says otherwise. Fees for schools in Bilbao are taken from published price lists, not from what third parties say.
2 of the 3 schools in the ranking are private. The other 1 is a state school, set out below. The type of school does not affect the score: private and state schools sit in one list and are scored by the same formula, and only verifiable data moves the number.
1 school in Bilbao teaches an international programme with no tuition fee: IES Botikazar BHI. On value for money such schools get the top score, because they sit outside the price range altogether.
1 school with an international accreditation is funded by the state: IES Botikazar BHI. Admission to these schools is usually competitive, and tuition is free or markedly cheaper than at a private school. In the ranking they stand alongside private schools and are scored on the same nine criteria.
Schools in Bilbao with an IB programme (2): Begoñazpi Ikastola, IES Botikazar BHI. Authorisation is confirmed against the International Baccalaureate register.
A facility counts only when the school names it outright on its own site: a modern campus is not a swimming pool. School transport: 2 schools.
Comparing schools on a single feature is useless: the most expensive is not the best, and a famous name says nothing about what is backed by documents. The score is therefore built from nine criteria with different weights - from academic programmes and accreditation to facilities, clubs and fees relative to other schools in the country.
A criterion counts towards the score only when there is verifiable data behind it. That is why every score says how many of the nine criteria were counted: at schools in Bilbao that is 7.7 out of 9 on average. A school with a detailed site and a school with no site cannot earn an equally reliable score, and that is shown rather than hidden.
Ratings and reviews from Google Maps, Yandex Maps and 2GIS are not used: their terms forbid aggregation. Only verified reviews left here count. Full methodology →
Published fees run from $6 665 to $10 662 for a school year. The cheapest is Deutsche Schule Bilbao - Colegio Alemán de Bilbao, the most expensive Deutsche Schule Bilbao - Colegio Alemán de Bilbao. The median for the senior stage is $10 662 a year. Tuition is free at 1 school: IES Botikazar BHI. Fees are converted into dollars at a weekly rate; schools publish them in their own currency.
Begoñazpi Ikastola comes first with 69.8 points out of 100, counted from 7 of the 9 criteria. Next come IES Botikazar BHI (69.4) and Deutsche Schule Bilbao - Colegio Alemán de Bilbao (64.7). The score is built from data anyone can check: accreditations found in official registers, programmes, facilities and published fees. A place in the ranking is not for sale.
The ranking holds 3 schools: 2 private and 1 state (IES Botikazar BHI). Private and state schools go into the ranking on equal terms.
International Baccalaureate programmes are taught at 2 schools: Begoñazpi Ikastola, IES Botikazar BHI.
The earliest intake starts at a few months old.
The score of every school adds up from nine criteria with different weights: academic programmes, accreditation, facilities, clubs, the fee against other schools in the country, reviews, university destinations, safety and teachers. A criterion counts only when there is data behind it that can be checked, so every score says how many of the nine were counted. Right now that is 7.7 out of 9 on average. We do not use reviews from maps or directories.