Press release 11/02/2019
In the third quarter of 2018 the number of marriages fell by 12.5%
More than 3 out of 4 marriages were civil despite the fact that fewer marriages take place in the summer months
In July, August and September 2018 there were 2,655 marriages registered in the Basque Country, a 12.5% fall with respect to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat provisional data. Of the total number of marriages, 69 were between people of the same sex (21 between men and 48 between women) and the remaining 2,586 were heterosexual marriages.
In the third quarter of 2018, the percentage of civil weddings was 77.9%, 3.5 percentage points higher than in the same quarter of 2017 but lower than that observed in the second quarter of 2018, when it stood at 83.5%. This percentage refers only to heterosexual marriages, to which a further 2.6 points should be added for marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil.
Of the 2,655 marriages in the third quarter of 2018, 2,497 men and 2,552 women resident in the Basque Country got married. For 2,196 spouses (87.9%) this was their first marriage, whilst 14 widowers and 287 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 2,232 (87.5%), whilst there were 8 widows and 312 divorcees.
88% of husbands and 78% of wives were aged 30 or over
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 88.2% of grooms were aged 30 or over, whilst this percentage fell to 77.8% amongst brides. In the same period of the previous year, the proportion was higher for the men, 89.1%, and slightly lower for the women, 77.4%.
In relation to the nationality of the couples in the weddings held during the summer months in 2018, 6.9% of men and 9.7% of women held foreign nationality. In the same period of 2017 these percentages stood at 7.5% and 10% respectively.
September was the month that saw the most weddings (1,109), followed by July with 1,057. August remained the summer month which saw the fewest weddings (489).
Taking the province into account, 424 couples fixed their residence in Álava, 859 in Gipuzkoa and 1,227 in Bizkaia. The number of couples who took up residence outside of the Basque Country stood at 145.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62