Press release 02/03/2020
In the third quarter of 2019 the number of marriages fell by 9.3%
Just over 4 out of 5 marriages were civil
In July, August and September 2019 there were 2,470 marriages registered in the Basque Country, a 9.3% fall with respect to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 63 were between people of the same sex – 27 men and 36 women – and the remaining 2,407 were heterosexual marriages.
In the third quarter of 2019, the percentage of civil weddings was 80.6%, 3.3 percentage points higher than in the same quarter of 2018 but lower than that observed in the second quarter of 2019, when it stood at 85.5%. 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 2,470 marriages in the third quarter of 2019, 2,324 men and 2,357 women resident in the Basque Country got married. For 1,991 spouses (85.7%) this was their first marriage, whilst 16 widowers and 317 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 2,062 (87.5%), whilst there were 11 widows and 284 divorcees.
89% of husbands and 79% of wives were aged 30 or over
As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 89.4% of grooms were aged 30 or over, whilst this percentage fell to 78.9% amongst brides. In the same period of the previous year, the proportion was lower for the men (88.2%) and higher for the women (79.2%).
In relation to the nationality of the couples in the weddings held during the summer months in 2019, 8.5% of men and 12.6% of women held foreign nationality. In the same period of 2018 these percentages stood at 6.9% and 9.9% respectively.
July was the month that saw the most weddings (1,000), followed by September with 997. August remained the summer month which saw the fewest weddings (473).
Taking the province into account, 368 couples fixed their residence in Álava, 843 in Gipuzkoa and 1,142 in Bizkaia. The number of couples who took up residence outside of the Basque Country stood at 117.
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