Press Release 09/17/2018
There were 969 marriages registered in the first quarter of 2018, 5.5% down on the previous year
21% of recently married women and almost 16% of recently married men were foreign nationals
The number of marriages in the Basque Country during the first quarter of 2018 rose to 969, 5.5% down on those in the same quarter of the previous year (1,025), according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 31 were between people of the same sex – 10 between men and 21 between women – and the remaining 938 were heterosexual marriages.
The first quarter of the year is characterised by the low number of marriages celebrated, particularly in January and February, which in 2018 saw 234 and 302 weddings, respectively.
As has occurred in previous years, this quarter has seen a high proportion of civil marriages, 93.3% of heterosexual marriages, a figure 2.8 percentage points higher than that for the same period of the previous year (90.5%). Aggregating marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil, the total percentage rises to 96.5%.
In the 969 weddings in the first quarter of 2018, 902 men and 932 women resident in the Basque Country entered into marriage; the remainder of the spouses resided outside of the Basque Country. For 740 spouses (82%) this was their first marriage, whilst 11 widowers and 151 divorcees remarried. The percentage of women entering into their first marriage was slightly lower than that for men, standing at 756 (81.1%); the number of widows rose to 8 and the number of divorcees stood at 168.
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 90.7% of husbands were above the age of 30, whilst this percentage decreased to 84% for wives. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the proportion rose half a point for men (90.2%), whereas it decreased for women, given that in 2017 it was 85.2%.
In the first quarter of 2018, 21% of recently married women and 15.9% of recently married men were foreign nationals. Amongst women, this percentage has increased in comparison to the same period of 2017 (+1.5 points); however, amongst men, the proportion of foreigners increased (0.4 points).
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62