In the fourth quarter of 2005 the percentage of civil weddings increased with regard to the same period the year before, rising from 49.3% in 2004 to 54.5% in 2005, according to Eustat data. In addition, there is traditionally a greater proportion of civil weddings in these months of the year than in the summer months (36%), in which almost 4 out of every 10 weddings are held a year.

In the 1,996 weddings in the fourth quarter of 2005, 1,942 male and 1,970 female residents of the A.C. of the Basque Country got married. For 1,804 men (92.9%) this was their first marriage, while 11 widowers and 127 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was slightly lower than for men: 1.805 (91.6%) single women married, 14 widows and 151 divorcées.

Over the last three months of the year 50 weddings were held between persons of the same sex, 7 of which were held in Álava, 19 in Bizkaia and 24 in Gipuzkoa. Of these, 29 were weddings between males and 21 between females.

With regard to the distribution of marriages according to the age of the spouses, in the fourth quarter of 2005 77.2% of male spouses were aged over 30, while among female spouses this percentage came to 62.6%. These proportions are 4 percentage points above the figure for the same quarter of the year before for male spouses 8 for female spouses.

The trend therefore continued to delay the date for marrying in 2005 as a whole, as 71.3% of men and 53.9% of women married at the age of 30 or over, percentages that are much higher than the year before, which were 69,1% and 51%, respectively.

The provisional figure for 2005 shows the number of marriages between residents of the A.C. of the Basque Country fell 4.6% with regard to the year before. The proportion of civil weddings was over 2.5 percentage points above the figure for 2004, coming to 45.9% of the total in 2005.