MARRIAGE STATISTICS. II/2019

Marriages in the Basque Country fell by 12.4% in the second quarter of 2019

The number of civil marriages continued to grow, reaching 85.6%

In the second quarter of 2019 the figure for marriages in the Basque Country stood at 2,091, which was a drop of 12.4% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 57 were between people of the same sex (30 between men and 27 between women) and the remaining 2,034 were heterosexual marriages.

In terms of provinces, the number of marriages decreased in all three: there were 258 weddings in Álava, 699 in Gipuzkoa and 1,039 in Bizkaia. In addition, 95 couples fixed their residency outside the Basque Country.

As is common in the second quarter the number of unions rose considerably, above all in the month of June, as opposed to what happens in the winter months, which are characterised by the low number of weddings.

During the spring months of 2019, the percentage of civil weddings was 85.6%, 2.2 points higher than in the same quarter of 2018 but lower than that observed in the first quarter of 2019, when it stood at 91.3%. This percentage refers only to heterosexual marriages, to which a further 2.7 points should be added for marriages between people of the same sex, all of which were civil.

Of the 2,091 marriages in the second quarter of 2019, 1,994 men and 1,984 women resident in the Basque Country married. For 1,684 spouses (84.5%) this was their first marriage, whilst 19 widowers and 291 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 1,689 (85.1%), 9 widows and 286 divorcees.

The percentage of foreign nationals entering into marriage increased

With respect to the distribution according to the age of the couple, 91% of husbands and 84.6% of wives were older than 30. In the same period of 2018, the proportion was identical for the men and slightly lower for the women, 83.3%.

In the months of April, May and June 2019, 8.6% of recently married men and 12% of recently married women were foreign nationals. With regards to the same quarter of the previous year, the percentage of men increased by 1.3 percentage points and that of women 1.4.

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

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