In the second quarter of 2008, 55.1% of weddings were civil weddings, 6.5 percentage points more than in the same quarter of 2007, according to Eustat data. This figure is down on the first quarter of 2008, where nearly 82% of the marriages were civil. In this second quarter, the number of weddings in May and June increased considerably, in contrast to the previous quarter, which was noted for the low number of weddings held.

In April, May and June 2008, there were 2,835 weddings in the A.C. of the Basque Country, which was 1.5% down on the same quarter of the previous year. By provinces, 1,519 weddings were held in Bizkaia, followed by Gipuzkoa with 828 and Álava with 304. On the other hand, 80 couples set up home outside the A.C. of the Basque Country.

2,760 men and 2,768 women resident in the A.C. of the Basque Country married in the 2,835 weddings in the second quarter of 2008. This was the first marriage for 2,541 men (92.1%), while 15 widowers and 204 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages for women was similar to that of the men: the number of single brides came to 2,569 (92.8%), there were 13 widows and 186 divorcées.

With regard to the distribution of marriages according to the age of spouses, 75.4% of grooms were over 30 years old, while this percentage stood at 61.7% in the case of the brides. These percentages are higher than those for the same period of 2007 (73.9% and 58.1%, respectively), and yet again this quarter, the trend continued for people to be older when they marry.

Graph 1: Monthly movement in marriages

Base 100 = average

Source: EUSTAT