In the fourth quarter of 2004 there was an increase in the number of civil weddings in relation to the same period of the previous year, going from 1,014 in 2003 to 1,077 in 2004, according to Eustat data. However, during these last months of the year there is traditionally a higher proportion of civil weddings (49,3%) than in the summer months (34%), when almost 4 in 10 weddings are held.

In the 2,185 weddings held in the fourth quarter of 2004, 2,108 men and 2,143 women resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country got married. For 1,951 grooms (92.6%) this was their first marriage, and 14 widowers and 143 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages for women was slightly higher than that of men: there were 1,997 first-time brides (93,2%), 8 widows and 138 divorcées.

As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 73.1% of the grooms in the fourth quarter of 2004 were aged 30 or over, whereas for brides, this percentage accounted for 54.3%. These proportions were two percentage points higher than those of the same quarter of the previous year for grooms and practically the same for brides.

The trend to delay the moment at which to marry was therefore maintained; in 2004 as a whole, 69.1% of grooms and 51% of brides got married at the ages of 30 or over, higher percentages than the previous year, which were 66% and 47% respectively.

For 2004 as a whole, the number of marriages between people resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country came to 9,932, making 14 weddings less than the previous year. The proportion of civil weddings outdid that of 2003 by 5 percentage points, rising in 2004 to represent 43.4% of the total.