In 2006, 9,778 weddings were held between residents of the A.C. of the Basque Country of different sexes, 423 less than the previous year, according to Eustat data. Over recent years, the number of civil weddings has increased, going from representing 23.3% in 1990 to 48.2% in 2006, when they rose to 4,714. There were 5,058 Catholic weddings and 6 corresponded to other religious faiths.

By province in 2006, civil weddings had the greatest weight in Gipuzkoa (50.1%), followed by Álava and Bizkaia (both with 49.4%). The percentage of civil weddings between residents of the A.C. of the Basque Country fell to 30.7% when they took place outside our Community.

The Basque marriage rate (4.4 weddings per thousand inhabitants) is slightly below that of the countries of the European Union as a whole and the Spanish rate (4.8%o in both cases). July, with 1,605 weddings, occupied the first position as the favourite month to get married, followed by September with 1,565 and June with 1,357.

As regards the previous marital status of the couples, 92.3% of men had been single, a figure similar to the 92.5% of single women.

Parallel to the increased maternity age, there has been an increase in the age of couples getting married. In 2006, the average age of single men getting married was 32.7 and 30.7 for single women. Since 1986, the average age of grooms has risen by 5.3 years and 5.8 in the case of brides.

The favourite destinations for the 551 couples who made their residence outside the A.C. of the Basque Country after getting married were Cantabria and Madrid. There were differences, as regards the destination, between the couples who were married in the three provinces: those from Álava went preferably to Madrid, La Rioja and Castile and Leon; those from Bizkaia to Cantabria and Madrid and those from Gipuzkoa to overseas countries and Navarre.

As regards the geographical origin of the couples, 79% of the weddings were held between residents of the same municipality of the Community and 6.6% resided in neighbouring municipalities.

Graph 1: Average age of single spouses

Source: EUSTAT

Elsewhere, of the 169 weddings held between people of the same sex, 15 took place in Álava, 83 in Bizkaia, 61 in Gipuzkoa and 10 outside the A.C. of the Basque Country. Of these, 100 were weddings between men and 69 between women.