The number of marriages in the A.C. of the Basque Country in April, May and July came to 2,876, which represents a 6.7% decrease with regard to the same quarter the year before, according to Eustat data. By provinces, in Bizkaia 1,419 weddings were held, followed by Gipuzkoa with 978 and Álava with 385. in the case of residents marrying outside the Basque Country, the number of weddings came to 94.

Unlike the previous quarter, which was characterised by the low number of weddings held, in the second quarter of 2006 there was a sharp increase in weddings held in May and June. In addition, over this period 19% were civil weddings, which is five percentage points higher than the same quarter in 2005. At the same time this proportion is considerably lower than in the first quarter of 2006, when 77.5% of weddings were civil.

Of the 2,875 weddings held in the second quarter of 2006, 2,800 men and 2,830 women who are resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country got married. For 2,586 grooms (92.4%) this was their first marriage, while 13 widowers and 201 divorcés remarried. The percentage of women in first time marriages was similar to the male figure: there were 2,629 (92.9%) single brides, 8 widows and 193 divorcées

In the distribution of marriages according to the age of the spouses, we can see that of 73.6% grooms were aged over 30, while among brides this figure was 56.4%. These proportions are greater than the same quarter in 2005 (66.9% and 49.2%, respectively) which maintains, another quarter, the rising trend in the age of the marrying population.

Graph 1: Monthly movement in marriages