Press Release 30/11/2021

MARRIAGE STATISTICS. II/2021

There were 1,794 marriages in the second quarter of 2021 in the Basque Country, almost 4 times more than in the previous year, which was marked by the pandemic

In comparison with 2019 there was a drop of 17.4%

The number of marriages in the Basque Country during the second quarter of 2021 rose to 1,794, 286.6% more than in the same quarter of the previous year (464), a quarter characterised by the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Eustat data. If we compare data from this quarter with that from the same quarter of 2019, it reveals a drop of 17.4% in the number of marriages, which indicates that not all the weddings postponed in 2020 have taken place this year. Of the total number of marriages, 1,719 were opposite sex marriages and 75 were between people of the same sex (53 between women and 22 between women).

Taking in to account the province of residence, the number of unions increased in all three; there were 249 weddings in Álava, 637 in Gipuzkoa and 808 in Bizkaia. On the other hand, 100 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, which saw 46.1% of the weddings celebrated in the quarter,

During the spring months of 2021, the overall percentage of civil weddings was 92.5%. Among opposite sex marriages, the proportion of civil weddings was 88.3%, below that of 2020, which was 92.5% (down 4.2 percentage points).

Of the 1,794 marriages in the second quarter of 2021, 1,671 men and 1,730 women resident in the Basque Country married. For 1,362 spouses (81.5%) this was their first marriage, whilst 16 widowers and 293 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first weddings for women was similar to that for men: the number of single women who married stood at 1,439 (83.2%), 15 widows and 276 divorcees.

The percentage of foreign nationals entering into marriage decreased

With respect to the distribution according to the age of the couple, 91.6% of husbands and 85.8% of wives were over 30. In the same period of 2020, this proportion was 92.2% for men and 87.4% for women.

In the months of April, May and June 2021, 11.2% of recently married men and 16.4% of recently married women were foreign nationals. With regards to the same quarter of the previous year the percentage decreased by 7.8 percentage points among men, and 9 points among women.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62