Press release of 14/07/2016
3,307 marriages broke up in the Basque Country in 2013, which was 3.2% up on the previous year
In 19.2% of cases where the couples had minors, shared custody was granted
In 2013, there were 3,307 marital breakdowns, 3.2% up on the previous year, which comes to a rate of 1.5 breakdowns per 1000 inhabitants according to Eustat data. Of the total number of breakdowns, 15.6% were processed by the courts in Álava, 53.3% in Bizkaia and 31.1% in Gipuzkoa.
Marital breakdowns are defined as the dissolution of a marriage due to annulment, legal separation or direct divorce, the latter being defined as a marriage that has ended without a prior legal separation.
Of the total number of direct divorces, 2,315 were dissolved by mutual consent and 799 were contested. As for separations, 151 were dissolved by mutual consent and 40 were resolved through legal action.
In 62.3% of marital breakdowns the request was filed jointly by both spouses, in 25.8% by the wife and only 11% by the husband.
Four out of 10 breakdowns occurred in the first 10 years of marriage and 26% after 20 years. In the case of separations, 51.8% of marriages lasted 20 years or more. Marriages dissolved by direct divorce lasted 15 years on average, whereas marriages dissolved by separated lasted 22 years on average.
37.9% of dissolved marriages had no minor children or dependants of legal age, 55.4% had only minors, 3.1% had only offspring of legal age who were economically dependent and in 3.7% of cases there were both minor and legal age dependants.
In 69.8% of marriages with children, child support was paid by the father, in 12% by the mother and in 18.2% by both spouses.
Regarding the custody of minor children, in 68.4% of cases it was granted to the mother, in 12.1% to the father, and it was shared in 19.2%.
The total number of divorces in 2013 was 3,644
With regards to divorces, if we take into account divorces where there was a prior separation, and which have thus been counted in this category, there was a total of 3,644 divorces in 2013. Of these, 530 occurred with a prior legal separation, and 3,114 were direct.
3,615 heterosexual couples got divorced as well as 29 homosexual couples, 17 of them male and 12 female.
The greatest number of heterosexual divorces occurred in the age group between 40 and 49 years in the case of men, 40.2%, and in the age group 35 to 44 in the case of women, 41.8%. The average age of women at the time of divorce was 43, whilst for men it was 46.
Regarding the nationality of spouses, 9.6% of men were foreign, and the percentage of foreign wives was similar, at 10%.
As for the marital status of the spouses before their marriage was dissolved, most of them were single. In the case of husbands, 10.8% were divorced and 0.6% widowers; for wives, these proportions were 8.2% and 0.6% respectively.
Most spouses were resident in the Basque Country on the date of the divorce, although 3.6% of men and 2.5% of women resided outside the Basque Country.
In 2013 there were 191 separations and only 2 marital annulments
Of the 191 separations that occurred in 2013, 79.1% were by mutual consent and 21% were contested.
In separations, the average age of women was 49 and the average age of men was 52.
The 2 cases of marital annulment were granted by the courts in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, and in these cases, the average age of both women and men was 37.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62
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