Divorces and separations are on a downward trend in Spain, but the latest data suggests it’s more a case of couples begrudgingly deciding to stay together.
In 2025, there were 84,424 divorces in Spain, 11.7 percent fewer than the previous year.
The Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Valencia recorded the highest rates of divorce proceedings per 100,000 inhabitants, exceeding the national average.
In Spain there are several types of separation and the data in recent years suggests they are down across the board.
Court applications for contentious divorces fell by 24.7 percent last year. Separations where the parties could not reach an agreement also fell sharply, by 22.1 percent, and applications relating to disputes over child custody arrangements brought by unmarried couples decreased by 22.1 percent compared with 2024.
So, what’s behind this trend?
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Experts believe that the cost of living, and house prices in particular, could partly be behind the fall.
With divorces down 11.7 percent year-on-year, there’s an emerging trend of couples staying together because they cannot afford to divorce and move out.
One man from Seville told Spanish outlet La Sexta that for him divorce after many years would mean “having to find a place to live, living on a student budget, sharing a flat or moving back in with your parents.”
READ ALSO: How does shared custody after divorce work in Spain?
Lawyer Ángeles Montes feels that divorce essentially means doubling expenses: “One of the two has to leave the house, has to start paying rent, support themselves, pay spousal maintenance and child support”.
The Spanish Association of Family Lawyers (AEAFA), however, believes that the fall in legal proceedings for separations and divorces in recent years lie the MASC (Appropriate Means of Dispute Resolution), the new mandatory out-of-court mediation procedure for all couples who split up without reaching an agreement, as a prerequisite for going to court.
“The imposition of these attempts at negotiation is leading to delays in the filing of claims,’ says Ramón Quintano, a family lawyer in Girona and an AEAFA board member.
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“What is happening is that we aren’t filing claims because we are engaged in negotiations, as required by law,” he added.
Quintano points out that “there had never been double-digit year-on-year changes in the number of family law cases,” besides 2020 due to the closure of the courts during the Covid pandemic.
READ ALSO: Property in Spain – What happens when there’s a divorce?
“But back then, all cases dropped, including those settled by mutual agreement. Now the courts are not closed, but you have to comply with a procedure that prevents you from filing a claim,” he adds.
The MASC (Appropriate Means of Dispute Resolution) was established by law in 2025.
The aim was to reduce litigation and encourage settlements. That is why couples are now required to attempt to reach a solution between themselves or through a third party and provide documentary evidence of this before filing a court claim.
However, this procedural requirement has been the subject of complaints and disputes for months, particularly due to differing application criteria and its negative impact on children’s lives caused by delays in resolving divorces.
Quintano gives an example of how MASCs slow down the separation process and cause harm, citing the case of a client who wants to divorce and is claiming child maintenance, but cannot file for divorce immediately without going through the MASC process.
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“She is entitled to receive the maintenance, but payment will be backdated to the date the application was filed. As she has to send the mediation request to her partner, he has 30 days to respond and may, on the 29th, request an extension to secure a court-appointed lawyer, meaning the MASC process will begin several months late, during which time she will not receive child maintenance”.
Similarly, in these cases, fathers can sometimes go months without seeing their children.
The drawn out process, combined with the financial hit that comes with separation, seems to be putting many Spaniards off.
