Note 44 - Administration Costs - Average Number Of Employees By Geographical Area - Average Employees (Details) - Employee	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
BBVA, S.A. [Member]
Average BBVA S A Employees Line Items
Average Number Of Employees	26,869	25,979	25,475

The average number of personnel employed by the entity during a period.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2009/role/commonPracticeRef
-Name IAS
-Number 1
-IssueDate 2016-01-13
-Paragraph 112
-Subparagraph c
-URI http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/XBRL?type=IAS&num=1&date=2016-03-30&anchor=para_112_c&doctype=Standard
-URIDate 2016-03-31

Name:	ifrs-full_AverageNumberOfEmployees
Namespace Prefix:	ifrs-full_
Data Type:	xbrli:decimalItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration