Press Release 01/10/2020

MARRIAGE STATISTICS. I/2020

There were 908 marriages registered in the first quarter of 2020, 10.5% down on the previous year

In March marriages were down 56.2%

The number of marriages in the Basque Country during the first quarter of 2020 rose to 908, 10.5% down on those in the same quarter of the previous year (1,015), according to Eustat data. Of the total number of marriages, 29 were between people of the same sex (10 between men and 19 between women) and the remaining 879 were heterosexual marriages.

The first quarter of the year is characterised by the low number of marriages celebrated, particularly in January and February, although this year it should be pointed out that in January there were 45.8% more marriages than in 2019 and in February 23.8% more; in contrast, in March marriages fell by 56.2%.

The increases this January and February in respect of the equivalent months of 2019 may partly be due to 2020 having one more Friday in January and one more Saturday in February, given that marriages are concentrated on these days, 58.7% and 21.7%, respectively. However, the decrease in March may largely be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As is common, in this quarter there was a high proportion of civil marriages: 94.3% of heterosexual marriages, as well same-sex marriages, all civil, to which the total percentage rises to 97.5%.

In the 908 weddings in the first quarter of 2020, 860 men and 883 women resident in the Basque Country entered into marriage; the remainder of the spouses resided outside of the Basque Country. For 678 spouses (78.8%) this was their first marriage, whilst 7 widowers and 175 divorcees remarried. The percentage of women entering into their first marriage was higher than that for men, standing at 718 (81.3%); the number of widows rose to 4 and the number of divorcees stood at 161.

As regards the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couples, 90.1% of husbands were aged 30 or over, whilst this percentage decreased to 82.9% for wives. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the proportion fell for both men (90.7%) and women (87.7%).

The percentage of married women of foreign nationality rose by 8.9 points

In the first quarter of 2020, 29.9% of recently married women and 20.5% of recently married men were foreign nationals. These percentages increased in comparison with the same period in 2019, for both wives and husbands, when they were 21% and 15.7%, respectively.

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