Press Release 10/02/2022

STATISTICS ON MARITAL BREAKDOWNS. 2020

2,864 marriages were dissolved in the Basque Country in 2020, 14.5% less than the previous year

In cases involving minors, custody was shared in over half of the breakdowns (53%)

In 2020, a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 2864 marital breakdowns, a figure lower than that posted in 2019 when there were 3,348 breakdowns, according to data prepared by EUSTAT. Of these, 16.1% were processed by the courts in Álava, 52.1% in Bizkaia and 31.8% in Gipuzkoa. Marital breakdown is defined as the dissolution of a marriage due to direct annulment, separation or divorce. In other words, marriages that have ended without a prior legal separation.

Of the total number of direct divorces, 2,290 were dissolved by mutual consent and 479 were contested. As for separations, 80 were dissolved by mutual consent and 13 were contested.

In 70.6% of marital breakdowns the request was filed jointly by both spouses, in 19.1% by the wife and only 9% by the husband.

37.7% of breakdowns occurred before the tenth anniversary of the marriage and 27.2% after 20 years. In the case of separations, 60.2% of marriages lasted under 15 years. The marriages dissolved directly through divorce lasted on average 14.9 years, a figure that rose to 26.7 years among those dissolved following a prior legal separation.

33.1% of dissolved marriages had no minor children or dependants of legal age; 56.4% had only minors, 4.2% had only offspring of legal age who were economically dependent and in 6.3% of cases there were both minor and legal age dependants.

In 51.3% of marriages with children, child support was paid by the father, in 42% by the mother and in 6.7% by both spouses.

As regards custody of minor children, in 53% of cases custody was shared, in 39.2% the mother had custody and in 7.5% custody was attributed to the father.

The total divorce figure stood at 3,049 in 2020, 500 fewer than in the previous year

Regarding divorces, in 2020 there was a total of 3,049, divided into 280 cases where there had been a prior legal separation and 2,769 direct divorces.

3,011 heterosexual couples divorced as well as 38 homosexual couples, 22 of them male and 16 female.

In reference to heterosexual divorces, the majority took place in the 40-49 age range, in the case of both men and women, comprising 42.1% and 44.1%, respectively, of the total of divorcees. The average age of women at the time of divorce was 45.5, whilst for men it was 48.

Regarding the nationality of spouses, 11.6% of men were foreigners, and the percentage was the same for foreign wives was the same.

As for the civil status of the spouses when they entered into the now-dissolved marriage, 88.5% of women were single, slightly below the figure of 90.1% in the case of men.

Most spouses were resident in the Basque Country on the date of the divorce, although 3.5% of men and 2.4% of women resided outside the Basque Country.

In 2020 there were 93 separations and 2 marital annulments

Of the 93 separations that occurred in 2020, 86% were by mutual consent and 14% were resolved through legal action.

All of the 93 separations corresponded to heterosexual couples. In separations of heterosexual couples the average age of women was 50.5 and the average age of men was 53.2.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel.: 945 01 75 62