Guggenheim Bilbao in 2025: 1.3 Million Visitors and €677 Million Added to the Basque Economy

Every city that wants a museum to fix its economy ends up pointing at Bilbao. Nearly thirty years after Frank Gehry's titanium building opened in 1997, the numbers are still the strongest argument for the idea.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao counted 1,305,003 visitors in 2025, about 3,600 more than the year before. Sixty-nine percent came from outside Spain. The single biggest draw was the Refik Anadol show, which pulled in 891,460 people on its own.

The spider is Louise Bourgeois's Maman, about 9.3 metres tall, bought by the museum in 2001. She stands on the river side of the building, legs planted on the stone, and she's free to see. So is Jeff Koons's flower-covered Puppy on the city side. A lot of visitors photograph both, walk the outside of the building and never buy a ticket. The museum still counts on them. They eat in Bilbao.

What the museum says it's worth

The museum's own figures for 2025 put total spending generated by its activity at €782.3 million. Of that, €676.7 million counts as added GDP for the Basque Country, and €106.1 million came back as tax revenue. It says the activity sustained 14,319 jobs. And it pays for about 78% of its own running costs, which is a high share for a museum of this size.

Treat those as the museum's numbers. Impact studies always count generously. Even so, the shape of the story holds up when you walk the city. The old shipyards along the Nervión are parks and promenades now. There's a metro designed by Norman Foster, an airport terminal by Santiago Calatrava, and a riverside built for walking.

The expansion that didn't happen

For years the plan was a second Guggenheim site in the Urdaibai biosphere reserve, split between Gernika and Murueta. Bizkaia's provincial government had committed €40 million. Local opposition was strong, a reflection period started in January 2024, and in December 2025 the project was shelved for good. Bilbao keeps one museum.

Visiting

General admission is €18 for adults, €9 for students and over-65s, and free for under-18s, with the audio guide included. The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00 and closes on Mondays. Book a time online in summer and on weekends.

The best view of the building is from the La Salve bridge or the far bank of the river, and that one's free too.