The number of marriages of residents in the A.C. of the Basque Country in the year 2002 came to 9,867 and, despite the lack of data on marriages held outside the A.C. of the Basque Country, there were 161 more weddings than the year before, according to Eustat data. The proportion of civil marriages is higher than in 2001, representing 36% of the total.

In the 2,132 weddings in the fourth quarter of 2002, 2,035 men and 2,100 women resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country were married. For 1,892 husbands (93%) this was their first marriage, while 19 widowers and 124 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages among women was similar to the figure for men: the number of single women who married was 1,956 (93.1%), 9 widows and 135 divorcées.

In this quarter there was an increase in the number of civil weddings in relation to the same period the year before, rising from 840 in 2001 to 953 in 2002. In addition, traditionally in the last months of the year there is a higher proportion of civil weddings (44.7%) than in the summer months (27.5%), in which 4 out of every 10 marriages in the year are held.

With regard to the distribution of marriages according to the age of spouses in the fourth quarter of 2002, 70.5% of newly wed husbands were over the age of 30, while among newly wed wives this percentage was 51%. These proportions are higher than in the same quarter the year before.

The trend to get married at an older age continues; in the year 2002 altogether 65% of newly wed husbands and 45% wives were married at the age of 30 or over, these being higher percentages than the previous year.