Lorraine Williamson
Spain is often held up as one of Europe’s most developed countries for protecting women from gender-based violence. It has specialist courts, a long-standing legal framework, a national police monitoring system for at-risk victims, and, more recently, renewed official focus on online abuse. But the latest figures and policy debate show a more uncomfortable truth: Spain may be ahead of many neighbours on paper, yet the scale of violence against women remains stubbornly serious.
That tension is what makes the story worth telling now. Spain ranks fourth in the EU on the 2025 Gender Equality Index, with a score of 70.9 out of 100, and it continues to be referenced internationally as a country with a comparatively strong institutional response to violence against women. At the same time, the same European data shows that violence remains widespread, while Spanish authorities are now warning more openly about newer threats such as digital harassment.
Why Spain is seen as a reference point
Part of Spain’s reputation comes from the breadth of its system. The Interior Ministry’s VioGén platform is designed to assess risk, coordinate police protection, and monitor cases of gender violence across different institutions. In 2025, the ministry also rolled out VioGén 2 and a new protocol, saying the changes were intended to strengthen the police response to gender-based violence.
Spain has also spent years building a broader legal and policy framework around equality and violence prevention. The European Institute for Gender Equality notes that Spain’s institutional and legislative backdrop on gender equality is comparatively comprehensive, while European data on violence places the country among those with a more developed reporting and policy structure.
The numbers behind the praise
The praise, however, does not mean the problem is small. EIGE’s latest violence data says 28% of women in Spain have experienced physical or sexual violence by any perpetrator since the age of 15. Police-recorded data also shows that women account for 91% of intimate partner violence victims and 83% of domestic violence victims in Spain.
Spanish official statistics point in the same direction. INE said the number of women recorded as victims of gender violence in 2024 was 34,684, a fall of 5.2% from the previous year. Even so, the figure remains high enough to show why campaigners and institutions alike reject any idea that the system has “solved” the issue.
The longer historical picture is harsher still. Spain’s equality ministry has said that more than half of women living in Spain over the age of 16 have suffered some form of male violence in their lifetime, based on the Macro-survey on Violence Against Women referenced in the state strategy to combat male violence. That strategy also highlights the impact on children living in households where partner violence is present.
A new frontier: online abuse
One of the clearest signs that the debate is shifting came earlier this month, when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez used an International Women’s Day event to warn that violence against women has found “a new stronghold” in the digital sphere. He said more than 2.5 million women in Spain have experienced digital harassment at some point, and that 28% of them had deliberately reduced their online activity as a result.
That matters because it broadens the conversation beyond physical assault or intimate partner violence. Spain’s protection model is increasingly being judged not only on how it responds after abuse happens, but on whether it can adapt to newer forms of intimidation, coercion, and harassment that spill across messaging apps, social media, and digital platforms.
Why the “model” label is both fair and incomplete
It is fair to say Spain has built one of Europe’s more visible institutional responses. It collects more detailed data than many countries, it has a national risk-monitoring structure, and it remains politically invested in the issue at the state level. European bodies continue to cite Spain as a country with established mechanisms in this area.
But calling Spain a model without qualification risks oversimplifying the reality. A country can be advanced in legislation and still struggle with entrenched violence, under-reporting, repeat victimisation, and the spread of online abuse. The latest EU survey on gender-based violence showed that, across the bloc, half of women who suffered violence from a partner never told anyone, underlining how much of the problem remains hidden even where systems exist. That wider European context helps explain why Spain’s record can look both comparatively strong and deeply troubling at the same time.
What this means for Spain now
For readers in Spain, the real takeaway is not whether the country deserves praise. It is whether institutions can keep pace with the forms violence now takes and whether protection reaches women early enough. Spain may still be ahead of much of Europe in the way it structures its response, but the volume of cases, the persistence of femicide and abuse, and the rise of digital harassment all point to the same conclusion: this is not a finished success story. It is an ongoing test.
That is why the “model” narrative needs a second half. Spain has built tools that other countries study. What it has not built is an endpoint. The framework may be stronger than elsewhere, but the fight itself is still far from won.