The first quarter of 2007 saw 1,084 marriages in the A.C. of the Basque Country, meaning there were 37% less than those held in the fourth quarter of 2006, which totalled 1,714, and was practically the same figure as in the same quarter of last year, according to Eustat data. Traditionally, the first quarter of the year is when least weddings are held, especially in January and February.

As has been the pattern in other years, this quarter had the greatest proportion of civil weddings (75.1%), triple the number of religious ones. However, the percentage of civil marriages diminished by 1.6 points as regards the same period of last year. In Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa they decreased with regard to the same quarter of 2006, accounting for 79.3% and 69.5% respectively. On the other hand, Álava experienced a slight increase and was the province with the greatest proportion of civil weddings (81.6%).

Of the 1,084 weddings held in the first quarter of 2007, 1,054 of the men and 1,062 of the women were residents of the A.C. of the Basque Country. For 916 grooms (86.9%) this was their first marriage, while 10 widowers and 128 divorcés remarried. The percentage of women for whom this was their first marriage was higher than that of men, with first-time brides numbering 932 (87.8%); while there were 11 widows and 119 divorcées.

As for the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, it was seen that among grooms, 79.5% were aged over 30, whereas among brides, this percentage came to 67.6%. These proportions were greater than those seen during the same period of 2006 (79% and 65% respectively), which meant that, for one more quarter, the upward trend as regards the age of the population who got married remained steady,

Elsewhere, 27 weddings were held between people of the same sex, 12 less than in the same quarter of last year; of these, 16 were between men and 11 between women.

Graph 1: Monthly movement in marriages