Press release 28/10/2019
The number of marriages decreased by 3.8% in 2018 with respect to the previous year
In the last 25 years, the average age of husbands and wives has increased by almost eight years
The total number of marriages stood at 7,758 in 2018, 3.8% down on the previous year, of which 208 were homosexual couples, according to Eustat data.
If we take into account the marriages of residents of the Basque Country between individuals of a different sex, the number was 7,550, 311 weddings fewer than the previous year.
The Basque marriage rate was 3.3 weddings per thousand inhabitants, a similar number to the Spanish rate (3.5%o), but lower than that for European Union (28 countries), which in 2016 (latest available data) stood at 4.4%o.
There was an increase in the age of marriage alongside a delay in the age at which women become mothers. In 2018, the average age of single men when marrying was 37.2, while that of single women was 35.1. In the last 25 years, the average age of husbands and wives has increased by 7.6 years, the difference of two years between them remaining stable.
Taking into account civil status prior to marriage, single men represented 85.4% of couples, a similar figure to the 85.0% of single women.
June and September were the favourite months in which to get married, with 1,163 and 1,158 weddings respectively, followed by July with 1,071 weddings.
The number of civil weddings has tripled since 1990
85% of weddings of individuals of a different sex were civil; this percentage increased by two percentage points compared to the previous year, whilst in 1990, this percentage was 23%.
By province of residence, civil weddings had the most weight in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, 86%. In Álava this percentage was 84.2%. In the case of civil weddings of residents celebrated outside of the Basque Country, the percentage fell to 72.2%.
Weddings celebrated on Fridays exceeded those on Saturdays
As in the previous year, Friday was the day when most weddings were celebrated. 44.5% of weddings were held on a Friday (3,455), and 38.6% on a Saturday (2,996).
The preferred destinations for the 399 couples who fixed their residency outside the Basque Country after getting married were Madrid, Navarra and Cantabria. Couples from Álava preferred Madrid and Burgos; those from Bizkaia, Cantabria and Madrid; and those from Gipuzkoa, France and Navarra.
In 17.6% of marriages between individuals of a different sex, at least one of the spouses was of foreign nationality
Regarding the nationality of people entering into marriage, in 1,332 marriages (17.6% of the total) at least one of the spouses was foreign; in 44.1% of these marriages, it was the wife who had foreign nationality, in 21.6% it was the husband, and in the remaining 34.3% both spouses had foreign nationality.
In the case of marriages in which only the women had foreign nationality, 69.8% of them were from an American country, followed by 20.1% of them who had a European nationality. If it was only the man with foreign nationality, this was shared across American and European countries in similar percentages (37.5% and 31.2% respectively).
In the marriages in which both spouses were foreigners, most had American nationality, although the percentage was greater amongst women (71.7%) than men (59.9%). The second nationality continent was Africa, with 23.4% of men and 17.9% of women.
The number of homosexual marriages rose by 4.5% with respect to the previous year
In 2018, 208 weddings between people of the same sex were celebrated, the highest figure since 2005, when homosexual marriages were legalised, which represents an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year. Of these weddings, 119 were between women and 89 were between men. Regarding distribution between provinces, 26 were resident in Álava, 70 in Gipuzkoa, 96 in Bizkaia and 16 outside the Basque Country.
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