Couple breakups are becoming less conflictive. At least that is what emerges from the statistics of annulments, separations and divorces published by the INE. Last year there were 84,551 annulment, separation and divorce cases in Spain, 6.7% less than the previous year.
The bulk were divorce proceedings (81,302) and eight out of ten were by mutual agreement. What's more, there are fewer and fewer couples who do not even go through the court to get divorced. Last year almost 12.9% of those who got divorced resolved it by public deed, at the notary.
And seven out of ten divorce petitions of different-sex couples were filed jointly by both spouses, while in 19% of cases it was the wife and in 10.4% the husband.
In addition, joint custody of children is gaining ground among fathers and mothers who separate and everything indicates that it will soon be the majority option. If ten years ago in more than 76% of divorces between people of different sexes custody of the children was granted to the mother and joint custody did not reach 18%, last year 45.5% were already shared, in the 50% of cases were given to the mother and in 3.5% to the father.
The increase in joint custody also implies that more and more divorced parents share the economic burdens of their children (39%), although last year there were still 57% of breaks in which the payment of alimony was assigned to the father and 4% in which corresponded to the mother.
Of the 81,302 divorces recorded last year, 1,749 (2.2% of the total) were between people of the same sex. Of these, 927 were men and 822 women.
In the case of breakups between heterosexual couples, the greatest number occurs when the spouses are in their forties, although year after year there is a certain delay in the average age at which they divorce, perhaps due to the fact that couples are increasingly they delay more the age at which they begin their coexistence.
The average age of women who divorced last year was practically 46 years, and 48 in the case of men, although there are few breakups between people who are over 50 years of age.
On average, divorced couples in 2022 had been married for 16 and a half years, although 32% of divorces occurred after more than 20 years of marriage, 21% had been between 5 and 9 years, 17% between 10 and 14, 16% between 15 and 19, 12% between two and four years and 2.5% had not yet celebrated their second anniversary.
The reduction in conflict in divorces could also be related to the fact that a growing percentage of those who separate do so without having dependent children. Last year, 45.5% of those who got divorced did not have them. 43% had only minor children, 4% only children who were of legal age but economically dependent on them, and 7.3% had both adult and minor children. And in 51% of the cases there were minor children over whom custody could be awarded.
The INE statistics also allow for an x-ray of the territories where the greatest number of marital breakdowns occur. The rate of annulments, separations and divorces per thousand inhabitants in Spain was 1.8 in 2022, slightly lower than in 2021 (1.9). Ceuta once again led the ranking of the most divorces per population, with a rate of 2.6, while Castilla y León remains with the community where the lowest percentage of people get divorced (1.4).
In absolute figures, Andalucía, Catalunya and Madrid are the autonomous communities where the most couple breakups are recorded, coinciding with the fact that they are also the ones where the most people reside.
