Press Release 12/02/2018
There were 2,887 marriages registered in the third quarter of 2017 in the Basque Country, 8.8% down on the previous year
Fewer civil weddings took place in the summer
In July, August and September 2017 there were 2,887 marriages registered in the Basque Country, an 8.8% fall with respect to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 56 were between people of the same sex – 27 men and 29 women – and the remaining 2,831 were heterosexual marriages.
In the third quarter of 2017, the percentage of civil weddings was 75.2%, 1.5 percentage points higher than in the same quarter of 2016 but lower than that observed in the second quarter of 2017, when it stood at 83.4%. This percentage refers only to heterosexual marriages, to which a further 1.9 points should be added for marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil.
Of the 2,887 marriages in the third quarter of 2017, 2,742 men and 2,766 women resident in the Basque Country got married. For 2,423 spouses (88.4%) this was their first marriage, whilst 19 widowers and 300 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 2,440 (88.2%), while there were 11 widows and 315 divorcees.
89% of husbands and 78% of wives were aged 30 or over
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 89.2% of grooms were aged 30 or over, whilst this percentage fell to 77.8% amongst brides. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the proportion rose for both sexes, since it was 87% in 2016 for husbands and 75.5% for wives.
In relation to the nationality of the couples in the weddings held during the summer months in 2017, 7% of men and 9.3% of women held foreign nationality.
July was the month that saw the most weddings (1,253), followed by September with 1,194. On the other hand, August remained the summer month which saw the fewest weddings (440). In fact, the number for this month decreased 5.8% with respect to August of the previous year.
Taking the province into account, 407 couples fixed their residence in Álava, 952 in Gipuzkoa and 1,384 in Bizkaia. The number of couples who fixed their residence outside of the Basque Country stood at 144.
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