Press Release 14/09/2012
91% of marriages celebrated in the first quarter of 2012 were civil
The number of weddings increased by 4% compared to the same period of 2011
The number of marriages in the Basque Country during the first quarter of 2012 stood at 984, 36% down on the 1538 celebrated in the fourth quarter of 2011, and 4% more than the same quarter of the previous year (947), according to Eustat data. Traditionally, the first month of the year is characterised by the low number of marriages celebrated, above all, in January and February.
As has occurred in previous years, this quarter has seen the greatest proportion of civil marriages (90.9%), a slightly lower figure than the 91.2% for the same period of the previous year. The province with the highest proportion of civil marriages was Bizkaia with 91.8%, and that with the lowest was Gipuzkoa, with 89.2%. In Álava the percentage was 91.5%.
In the 984 weddings in the first quarter of 2012, 943 men and 949 women resident in the Basque Country entered into marriage. For 806 husbands (85.5%) this was their first marriage, whilst 14 widowers and 123 divorcees remarried. The percentage of women who married for the first time was slightly higher than that for men, with 813 (85.7%) single women, 10 widows and 126 divorcees entering into marriage.
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 87.4% of husbands were above the age of 30, whilst this percentage stood at 79.8% for wives. For both sexes there was a rise in the percentage of over-30s compared with the same period of the previous year, a quarter in which these percentages stood at 85.1% for men and 78.3% for women.
The percentage of foreign nationals entering into marriage was down
In the first quarter of 2012, 16.6% of recently married women and 11.2% of recently married men were foreign nationals. In the case of both husbands and wives, these percentages decreased in comparison with those recorded in the same period of 2011 (17.3% y 14.8%, respectively). This decrease was more pronounced in the case of men with a drop of 3.6 percentage points compared with 0.7 points for women.
On the other hand, 35 unions were celebrated between partners of the same sex, a figure that surpasses the 29 registered in the same quarter of the previous year; of these, 17 were between men and 18 between women.
For further information:
Euskal Estatistika-Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastian, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Tel:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-maileustat@eustat.es
Contact: Martín González Hernández
Tel:+34-945-01 75 49 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01
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