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Press Release 20/02/2017

MARRIAGE STATISTICS, III/2016

There were 3,052 marriages registered in the third quarter of 2016 in the Basque Country, 7.6% up on the previous year

Although fewer civil weddings take place in summer, in 2016 they accounted for 74.1%, almost 6 points up on the year before

In July, August and September 2016 there were 3,052 marriages registered in the Basque Country, a 7.6% rise with respect to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 48 were between people of the same sex – 20 men and 28 women – and the remaining 3,004 were heterosexual marriages.

In the third quarter of 2016, the percentage of civil weddings was 74.1%, 5.9 percentage points higher than in the same quarter of 2015 but lower than that observed in the second quarter of 2016, when it stood at 80.8%. This percentage refers only to heterosexual marriages, to which a further 1.6 points should be added for marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil.

Of the 3,052 marriages in the third quarter of 2016, 2,877 men and 2,876 women resident in the Basque Country got married. For 2,573 spouses (89.4%) this was their first marriage, whilst 12 widowers and 292 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was very similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 2,568 (89.3%), while there were 12 widows and 296 divorcees.

87% of husbands and 76% of wives were aged 30 or over

As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 87.2% of grooms were aged 30 or over, whilst this percentage fell to 75.7% amongst brides. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the proportion decreased slightly for both sexes, since it was 87.9% in 2015 for husbands and 76.3% for wives.

In relation to the nationality of the couples in the weddings held during the summer months in 2016, 5.8% of men and 7.6% of women held foreign nationality.

July was the month that saw the most weddings (1,411), followed by September with 1,192. On the other hand, August remained the summer month which saw the fewest weddings (449). In fact, the number for this month decreased 14.6% with respect to August of the previous year.

Taking the province into account, 470 couples fixed their residence in Álava, 917 in Gipuzkoa and 1,477 in Bizkaia. The number of couples who fixed their residence outside of the Basque Country stood at 188.

Source: Eustat. Marriage statistics