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Press release dated 10/09/2010

MARRIAGE STATISTCS (EMAT) OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY - 1ST QUARTER 2010

87.5% of the marriages in the first quarter of 2010 were civil weddings

The number of weddings fell by 5% with respect to the same period of 2009

The number of weddings in the A.C. of the Basque Country for the first quarter of 2010 came to 1.016, which was 42% lower than those held in the fourth quarter of 2009, which totalled 1,751, and 5% down on the same quarter of the previous year (1,070), according to Eustat data. The first quarter is traditionally noted for the low number of weddings, particularly in January and February.

As was the case in the previous year, the largest proportion of civil weddings (87.5%) occurred in this quarter and was up 6.9 percentage points on the same period of the previous year. The number increased in the three provinces with respect to the same quarter of 2009, with rises of 87.4% in Álava, 87.7% in Bizkaia and 87.8% in Gipuzkoa.

977 men and 986 women resident in the Basque Country married in the 1,016 weddings held in the Basque Country in the first quarter of 2010.This was the first marriage for 815 men (83.4%), while 12 widowers and 150 divorcés remarried. The percentage of women who married for the first time was slightly higher that for men, as 857 single women (86.9%), 5 widows and 11 divorcées married.

With regard to the distribution of marriages according to the age of spouses, 86.5% of grooms were over 30 years old, while this percentage stood at 74.7% in the case of the brides. These percentages are higher than those for the same period of 2009 (85.4% and 73.3%, respectively), and yet again this quarter, the trend continued for people to be older when they married.

On the other hand, there were 30 weddings between people of the same sex, 6 more than in the same quarter of the previous year, 16 of which were between men and 14 between women.