Divorces and separations experienced a notable growth in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2020. That period was marked by home confinement, but the downward trend experienced in Spain for more than ten years continues.
According to data collected by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the total number of applications for marital dissolution filed between March and June of this year was 26,752, 62.2% more than in the same period of 2020, but 6% less than in the same months of 2019 (28,477).
Downward trend
The trend remains downward throughout the historical series shown in the CGPJ tables. For example, in the second quarter of 2011 there were 32,261 dissolutions, 17% more than a decade later.
Conditions affecting the analysis are the pandemic, and the confinement it entailed, and the paralysis of the courts. But if the figures are compared with those of 2019, consensual divorces have fallen by almost 3%, non-consensual divorces by 10%, consensual separations by 11% and non-consensual separations by 16.6%.
Canary Islands processing most separations
By autonomous communities, the highest number of lawsuits per 100,000 inhabitants occurred in the Canary Islands, with 69. Following are the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, with 63.4 and 62.9, respectively. Murcia, 61.8; Cantabria, 60.6; Andalucia, 59; and Madrid, 56.9 are not far behind.
All of them exceed the national average, which is 56.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. On the contrary, the lowest rates were in Castilla y León, with 43.5; Aragon, with 45.3; and the Basque Country, with 46.9.
There are also notable increases in the demands for modification of measures in processes of separation and divorce and guardianship, custody and maintenance of non-marital children. In this case the trend is upward in recent years.
