MARRIAGE STATISTICS (EMAT) in the Basque Country, 2nd QUARTER 2011. There were 2304 marriages registered in the second quarter of 2011, 10.3% down on the previous year

Press release 14/12/2011

MARRIAGE STATISTICS (EMAT) in the Basque Country, 2nd QUARTER 2011

There were 2304 marriages registered in the second quarter of 2011, 10.3% down on the previous year

68.7% of the marriages that took place in April, May and June 2011 were civil

In the second quarter of 2011 the figure for marriages in the Basque Country stood at 2304, which was a drop of 10.3% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. By provinces, 1218 marriages took place in Bizkaia, followed by Gipuzkoa with 767 and Álava with 276. Furthermore, 43 married couples fixed their residence outside the Basque Country.

During the months of spring 2011, 68.7% of marriages were civil, 3.9 percentage points up on the same quarter of 2010. This proportion is also less than that obtained in the first quarter of 2011, when 91.6% of marriages were civil. As in previous years, in this second quarter the number of marriages rose considerably in May and June, in comparison with the previous quarter, which was characterised by the low number of marriages.

Out of the 2304 marriages of the second quarter of 2011, 2247 men and 2258 women resident in the Basque Country entered into marriage. For 2017 spouses (90%) this was their first marriage, whilst 18 widows and 212 divorcees remarried. The percentage of first marriages for women was slightly higher than that for men: there were 2145 single women (92%), 7 widows and 184 divorcees.

The age of brides and bridegrooms continued to rise

With respect to the distribution of marriages according to the age of the couple, 84.2% of bridegrooms and 71.2% of brides were older than 30. These proportions were greater than those for the same period of 2010 (83.5% and 70.6%, respectively), which maintains, for one more quarter, the trend of a rise in the age of the population on entering into marriage.

In April, May and June 2011, 7% of bridegrooms and 10% of brides who married were foreign, percentages that were higher than the same period in 2010 (6% men and 8% women).