Press Release 18/09/2017
There were 1,010 marriages registered in the first quarter of 2017, 13.6% up on the previous year
Almost 20% of recently married women and 15.5% of recently married men were foreign nationals
The number of marriages in the Basque Country during the first quarter of 2017 rose to 1,010, 13.6% up on those in the same quarter of the previous year (889), according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 32 were between people of the same sex – 10 between men and 22 between women – and the remaining 978 were heterosexual marriages.
The first quarter of the year is characterised by the low number of marriages celebrated, particularly in January and February, with 252 and 293 weddings respectively.
As has occurred in previous years, this quarter has seen a high proportion of civil marriages, 91% of heterosexual marriages, a figure identical to that for the same period of the previous year (91.2%). Aggregating marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil, the total percentage rises to 94.2%.
In the 1,010 weddings in the first quarter of 2017, 944 men and 954 women resident in the Basque Country entered into marriage; the remainder of the spouses resided outside of the Basque Country. For 767 spouses (81.3%) this was their first marriage, whilst 14 widowers and 163 divorcees remarried. The percentage of women entering into their first marriage was slightly lower than that for men, standing at 770 (80.7%); the number of widows rose to 6 and the number of divorcees stood at 178.
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 90.4% of husbands were above the age of 30, whilst this percentage decreased to 85.3% for wives. For both sexes the percentage of over-30s fell slightly compared with the same period of the previous year, a quarter in which these percentages stood at 91.8% for men and 86.8% for women.
In the first quarter of 2017, 19.7% of recently married women and 15.5% of recently married men were foreign nationals. Amongst women, this percentage has increased in comparison to the same period of 2016 (+4.1 points); however, amongst men, the proportion of foreigners increased (1.6 points).
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62