In April, May and June 2005, 2,980 marriages were registered in the A.C. of the Basque Country, meaning a 3% decrease with regard to the same quarter of last year, according to Eustat data. By province, 1,500 weddings involved couples resident in Bizkaia, followed by 980 from Gipuzkoa and 385 from Álava. In the case of residents outside the A.C. of the Basque Country, the number of weddings came to 115.

There was a rise in the number of civil weddings

Unlike the previous quarter, which was characterised by the scarcity of weddings that were held, the second quarter of 2005 saw a considerable increase in the number of weddings in May and June. Furthermore, in this period 42.2% of weddings were civil ones, one percentage point higher than had been seen in the same quarter of 2004. In turn, this percentage was discernibly lower than the one obtained in the first quarter of 2005, when 73.8% of weddings were civil ones.

Of the 2,980 weddings held during the second quarter of 2005, 2,878 of the men and 2,942 of the women who married were residents in the A.C. of the Basque Country. For 2,689 grooms (93.4%) this was their first marriage, while 24 widowers and 165 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages was slightly higher among women: there were 2,773 first-time brides (94.3%), 6 widows and 163 divorcées.

There was a slight fall in the age of brides

As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couple, 68.9% of grooms were aged over 30, while among brides this percentage came to 49.2%. A slight fall was seen in the age of brides, given that in the second quarter of 2004 the proportion of women aged over 30 was 2 percentage points higher (51.4%).