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Press release dated 10/12/2010

MARRIAGE STATISTCS (EMAT) OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY – 2nd QUARTER 2010

Two out of every three marriages in the second quarter of 2010 were civil weddings

2,410 weddings were held in April, May and June 2010, 8.4% down on the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2010, there were 2,410 weddings in the Basque Country, which was 8.4% down on the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. By provinces, 1,212 weddings were held in Bizkaia, followed by Gipuzkoa with 827 and Álava with 307. On the other hand, 64 couples set up home outside the Basque Country.

In April, May and June 2010, 67.1% of weddings were civil ceremonies, 11.4 percentage points up on the same quarter of 2009, according to Eustat data. This figure is down on the first quarter of 2010, where nearly 87.5% of the marriages were civil ceremonies. 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.

2,338 men and 2,354 women resident in the Basque Country were married in the 2,410 weddings in the second quarter of 2010. This was the first marriage for 2,104 men (90%), while 14 widowers and 220 divorcés remarried. The percentage of first marriages for women was the slightly higher than the figure for men: the number of single brides came to 2,354 (91%), while 5 widows and 204 divorcées married again.

The trend continues for people to be older when they marry

With regard to the distribution of marriages according to the age of spouses, 83.4% of grooms were over 30 years old, while this percentage stood at 71.1% in the case of the brides. These percentages are higher than those for the same period of 2009 (80.9% and 65.7%, respectively), and yet again this quarter, the trend continued for people to be older when they married.