According to the 2020 UNIDOMO questionnaire, Portugal clearly led the list of European countries with the highest divorce rate per 100 marriages. With 91.5 divorces the Portuguese Republic led the list, followed by Spain and Luxembourg. All three countries boast a significantly higher share than the other European countries, each reporting a divorce rate over 80 divorces.

A different way to look at Portugal

While Portugal clearly has the most divorces per 100 marriages, looking at divorce rates per 1.000 inhabitants in other European countries alters the picture of the country as one unsettled by significant numbers of divorces. With nearly 1.7 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants Portugal has roughly the same divorce rate as Germany and the Netherlands. Interesting is furthermore that although marriages in Portugal tend to result in divorce lightly more often as in Luxembourg (80.3%), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg experienced a 0.6 point higher divorce rate.

What about the rest of the World?

While compared with Latin American countries like Guatemala or Peru, ranked among the countries with the lowest divorce rates in the world, Luxembourg’s divorce rate seems excessive. However, when compared with divorce rates (per 1.000 inhabitants) of countries like the United States (2.7) or China (3.5) divorce rates from Luxembourg and Europe are not out of the ordinary.

From 2006 to 2023, the total number of divorces has declined gradually, falling from more than 126,000 divorces in 2006 to around 76,685 in 2023. This was the year with the lowest number of divorces in the analyzed period.

In 2023, Ceuta presented the highest rate of annulment, separation and divorce in Spain with 2.4 per 1,000 inhabitants. It was followed by Region of Valencia and Canary Islands, both with a rate of more than 1.9 percent.

In 2023, the number of divorces in Spain in which at least one of the spouses was between 40 and 49 years amounted to more than 30,000, being the age range in which the highest value of cases was recorded. In addition, there were 561 divorces in which one of the spouses was between 19 and 29 years old.

In 2023, approximately 5,100 divorces were registered in the province of Valencia, making it the third province with the most registered divorces. Spain's largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, ranked first and second respectively, with figures reaching over 10,000 cases in both cities.

Basic Demographic Indicators: Divorce rates according to sex and nationality (Spanish/foreign). Annual. National.

In 2023, couples without dependent children and those who had only minor children were the ones with the most divorce cases filed in Spain, registering over 32,000 cases in both cases. Couples with dependent adults registered only 2,886 divorces.

Basic Demographic Indicators: Divorce rates by Autonomous Community, according to sex and nationality (Spanish/foreign). Annual. Autonomous Communities and Cities.

This statistic presents the number of divorces filed in the provinces of the Spanish autonomous community of the Region of Valencia in 2019. That year, there were approximately 5.9 thousand divorces in the province of Valencia , which made it the province with the largest number of divorces registered in the region in 2019.

The mean age at first marriage in Spain was, along with Sweden, one of the highest in the European Union. Based on this setup, it is no wonder that the Spanish autonomous communities featured quite elevated numbers - particularly in the Canary Islands, where the average age at first marriage stood at over 41 years old for men and over 38 for women in 2023. Easy come easy go Marriage might be undergoing a declining popularity among Spaniards, or so it would seem by its national (heterosexual) marriage figures, which have experienced a slight decrease overtime. In 2023, the Balearic Islands recording the highest numbers on the list of marriage rate in Spain, with a rate of 4.43 marriages per 1,000 people. Moreover, Spain has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe, with 85.5 divorces per 100 marriages carried out in this country in 2020. Ageing: a common problem across the continent The age at first marriage is not the only digit that is on the rise in Spain. Data related to age in the Mediterranean country essentially behaves in a similar fashion as the rest of its European counterparts, whose population is also slowly but surely getting older. In 2023, the life expectancy at birth in Spain stood at 83.77 years, one of the highest in the world.

This statistic presents the number of divorces filed in the provinces of the Spanish autonomous community of Basque Country in 2019. That year, there were approximately 2.4 thousand divorces in the province of Biscay, which made it the province with the largest number of divorces registered in the region in 2019.

From 2006 to 2020, the highest peak of opposite-gender marriages in Spain took place in 2006 with a total number of approximately 203,000 heterosexual unions. The tendency in the upcoming years was downward, and the lowest point was reached in 2020, with figures showing figures of 87,000 opposite-gender unions. However, since 2022 the number of marriages returned to pre-pandemic levels, fluctuating between 160,000 and 173,000 marriages. Same-sex marriage in Spain Spain legalized same-sex marriage (matrimonio igualitario in Spanish) in 2005, thus becoming the third country in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry, after the Netherlands and Belgium. The number of same-sex nuptials stood at approximately 6,770 in 2023, with figures looking very similar for marriages between women and marriages between men. While marriages between women grew steadily since same-sex marriages was legalized, the trend for men behaved differently, with marriages booming in 2006 and dropping thereafter only to pick up in recent years. The number of same-sex marriages was significantly lower than that of opposite-sex couples throughout the entire period under review. Divorce numbers in Spain When love does not work out, some married couples may seek to put an end to their wedlock by getting a divorce. This was the case for more than 76,000 couples in 2023, as recorded by the latest reports. The number of marriages terminated by divorce in Spain decreased over the last few years, although it maintained steadily above 90,000 between 2009 to 2019. 2006 registered the highest number of divorces in Spain during this period at roughly 127 thousand divorces. In contrast, 2020 recorded the lowest point of the period considered.

This statistic depicts the share of respondents who expressed their viewpoint on what they think of divorce, according to the results of a survey conducted in Spain in January 2019. The great majority of the surveyed population believed that divorce was a necessary procedure sometimes.

This statistic depicts the global views on divorce as of 2013. Half or more people in India, Kenya, Pakistan, Uganda, and Ghana say that getting a divorce is morally unacceptable. In contrast, relatively few hold this view in Egypt (7%), Germany (7%), Jordan (6%), France (5%) and Spain (4%). The divorce rate in the United States can be accessed here.

The average cost of a wedding with 130 guests in Spain stood at 20,000 euros as of September 2023. This includes the expenses laid out for all products and services, such as clothing, music, banquet and invitations. The price of a wedding can vary greatly and is highly conditioned by the future new weds’ financial means or their taste. Thus, the price of a wedding in Spain could potentially balloon up to 32,000 euros and go as down as 12,000 euros. Over the past 16 years, the cost of a wedding dwindled slightly, except for a short-lived upward trend witnessed between 2013 and 2019.

Spain: the Europeans that tie the knot the oldest
The mean age at first marriage in Spain was, along with Sweden, one of the highest in the European Union. Based on this setting, it is no wonder that many Spanish autonomous communities featured quite elevated average age at the time of marriage - particularly in the Canary Islands, where the average age at first marriage stood at around 42 years old for men and nearly 37 for women.

Easy come easy go

Marriage might be undergoing a declining popularity among Spaniards, or so it would seem by its national (heterosexual) marriage figures, which have experienced a slight decrease over the last years. This information translates into a national average of around 3.12 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, with the region of Ceuta recording the highest numbers on the list of marriage rate in Spain. On top of that, Spain also appears at the top of the list of the highest divorce rates in Europe, with 85 divorces per 100 marriages carried out in this country, only exceeded by the rate of Portugal.

Spain had the oldest mean average age of marriage in Europe for both males and females at 36.8 for males, and 34.7 for females in 2022. By contrast, Poland had the youngest average age at marriage for males, at 30.7 and Romania for females at the age of 28.