The fourth quarter of 2006 saw an increase in the percentage of civil weddings compared to the same period of the previous year, going from 53.2% in 2005 to 58% in 2006, according to Eustat data. However, there are traditionally a greater percentage of civil weddings in the final months of the year than in the summer months (38,8%), when almost 4 out of 10 weddings are held.

There was a total of 1,666 marriages in October, November and December in the A.C. of the Basque Country, meaning a 15% decrease in relation to the same quarter of 2005. By province, residents of Bizkaia held 845 weddings, followed by those of Gipuzkoa, with 608 and those of Álava, with 161. In the case of those who had settled outside of our Community, the number of weddings came to 52.

1,615 men and 1,632 women resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country got married. For 1,473 grooms (91.2%) this was their first marriage, while 15 widowers and 127 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages for women was similar to that of men: 1,499 (91.9%) were first-time brides and there were 7 widows and 126 divorcées.

As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples in the fourth quarter of 2006, 77.2% of grooms were aged over 30, while for brides, this percentage accounted for 63.3%. These figures were similar to those of the same quarter of the previous year.

In 2006 as a whole, however, the trend in delaying the moment of getting married continued to rise, with 72.8% of grooms and 56.7% of brides marrying at 30 or over, percentages that were higher than those of the previous year, which were 71.3% and 53.9% respectively.

The provisional global result for 2006 shows a 4,2% decrease in the number of marriages between residents of in the A.C. of the Basque Country as regards the previous year. The proportion of civil marriages surpassed the 2005 figure by 4 points, reaching 49.9% of the total in 2006.

Graph 1: Monthly movement in marriages