The number of marriages in the A.C. of the Basque Country in the first quarter of 2006 came to 1,093, which represents slightly more than half the 1,996 weddings held in the fourth quarter of 2005 and 9.6% more than the same quarter the year before, according to Eustat data. Traditionally the first quarter of the year is characterised by the low number of weddings held, above all in January and February.

As occurred in previous years, in this quarter the highest proportion of civil weddings took place (78.6%), surpassing religious ceremonies in number and overtaking civil weddings by five percentage points in relation to the same period the year before. In Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa the increase was 7.5 and 4.5 percentage points with regard to the same quarter in 2005, representing 81.2% and 75.7%, respectively. By contrast, Álava saw a slight decrease, although it is the province with the highest proportion of civil weddings (81.8%).

Of the 1,093 weddings held in the first quarter of 2006, 1,058 men and 1,070 women who are resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country got married. For 932 grooms (88.1%) this was their first marriage, while 12 widowers and 114 divorcés remarried. The percentage of women in first time marriages was similar to the male figure: there were 940 single brides, 10 widows and 120 divorcées.

In the distribution of marriages according to the age of the spouses, we can see that of 79.3% grooms were aged over 30, while among brides this figure was 65.7%. These proportions are greater than those of the year 2005 (71% and 54%, respectively) which maintains, another quarter, the rising trend in the age of the marrying population.

Graph 1: Monthly movement in marriages