Is Spain splitting up? The ‘express’ divorce

The so-called “express divorce,” to which Spanish couples have been able resort for the past two years, has strengthened the rising trend in the number of marriage dissolutions in Spain.

The conclusion results from the data released Thursday by the INE national statistics institute on marriage annulments, separations and divorces in 2006, during which there were a total of 145,919 marriage dissolutions, 6.5 percent more than in 2005.

The average duration of the almost 146,000 marriages that were dissolved was 15.1 years, but most of the separations came after 20 years of married life.

The most curious thing about the figures is that, of the total number of dissolutions, 126,952 were divorces, 74.3 percent more than in 2005, 18,793 were separations, 70.7 percent fewer than the year before, and 174 were nullifications, 3.6 percent more than the previous year.

The disparate evolution in the percentage change in separations and divorces began in 2005, when the legislative reform creating the “express divorce” – by which a couple can divorce without the need to have already undergone a separation – went into effect.

The INE emphasized the exceptional increase in the marriages dissolved after less than a year – 330.6 percent greater than in 2005 – a result that is also attributed to the implementation of the express divorce.

Focusing on the type of marriage rupture, 65.3 percent of the divorces were uncontested and 34.7 were non-consensual.

The majority of the broken marriages, 51.3 percent, included minor children, while in 44.9 percent of the cases the couples did not have any children.

Furthermore, 57.2 percent of the separations were handled within six months and 12.5 percent took longer than a year to resolve, while in the case of divorces, 72 percent were resolved within six months and 4.9 percent took longer than a year to become final.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

[November 2007]

Subject: Spanish news