Spain recorded 83,683 marital dissolution proceedings in 2025, with divorces falling 2.7% to 80,785 cases and separations down 20.3%. Most divorces (80.5%) were uncontested, and the notary public route is increasingly used. Joint custody became the most common arrangement for minor children (50.8%), surpassing sole maternal custody (45.3%). Average age at divorce and the share of long marriages ending in divorce continue to rise.
Spain Sees 2.7% Drop in Divorces in 2025 as Joint Custody Becomes Most Common
Divorces in Spain fall 2.7% in 2025 as shared custody becomes the norm
The National Statistics Institute reports that marital break-ups in Spain continued to fall in 2025, with 83,683 dissolution proceedings recorded in total — including divorces, separations and annulments. Divorces accounted for the vast majority (80,785 cases, 96.5%), separations for 2,872 cases (3.4%), and annulments were negligible (27 cases, 0.1%). Compared with 2024, divorces declined by 2.7% and separations fell by 20.3%.
How Break-Ups Are Finalised
Most divorces were settled without dispute: 80.5% were uncontested, while 19.5% involved disagreement and went to court. In terms of legal channels used to formalise proceedings, 59.3% were finalised by court judgment, 24.8% by decree, and 15.9% by public deed before a notary — a notary route that continues to grow in popularity year on year.
Same-Sex Couples and Demographics
In 2025, 2,221 divorces involved same-sex couples (2.7% of all divorces), with 1,226 between women and 995 between men. Among separations, 80 cases involved same-sex partners. Nationality data show that in opposite-sex divorces 80.4% involved two Spanish spouses, 12.1% involved one foreign spouse, and 7.5% involved two foreign nationals.
Marriage Duration and Age
The marriages that ended in divorce lasted an average of 16.2 years, essentially unchanged from the previous year. Nearly a third (31.2%) of dissolutions occurred after 20 years or more of marriage, while only 3.4% ended within the first two years. The average age at divorce continues to rise and reached 49.1 for men and 46.6 for women in 2025. The largest share of divorces for both sexes was in the 40–49 age group.
Children, Custody and Maintenance
Almost half of dissolved marriages (47.1%) involved no children, either minors or economically dependent adults. Where minor children were involved, the most notable development was custody arrangements: joint custody was chosen in 50.8% of cases, surpassing sole custody awarded to the mother (45.3%) and sole custody awarded to the father (3.4%). This continues a long-term shift away from the historical norm of predominantly maternal custody.
Child maintenance was ordered in 53.7% of divorces involving children. When a single parent was ordered to pay, the father was the payer in 52.1% of such cases; maintenance was shared between parents in 44.1% of cases. Compensatory maintenance was much less common, ordered in 6.4% of divorces and paid by the husband in 91.4% of those cases.
Regional Differences
Regional variation remained marked: Ceuta recorded the highest dissolution rate at 2.5 per 1,000 inhabitants, well above the national average of 1.7 per 1,000. At the other end, Extremadura and Castile and León registered the lowest rate, at 1.4 per 1,000 each.
International Context
The institute also compares Spain’s figures with other countries by taking the ratio of the crude divorce rate to the crude marriage rate in the same year (for example, 500 divorces versus 1,000 marriages would represent a 50% ratio). The international comparisons use the latest available year for each country (for instance, Portugal’s figures correspond to 2020 and Germany’s to 2017).
Note: This article is a translation of statistics released by Spain's National Statistics Institute. The original text was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
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