What contributes to high divorce rates in Spain?

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Marriage is becoming less popular and divorce rate continues to rise across the world. Every year, world organizations, such as the United Nations, record global divorce rates and reasons why many married couples decide to call it quits. Interestingly, many reasons are common in most countries.

Incompatibility, infidelity, substance addiction, physical/mental abuse are just some of them. Yet in some countries, like in still predominantly Catholic Spain, high divorce rates have been alarming.

The country is becoming increasingly secular yet Catholics condemn divorce. The rate of marriages ending in divorce has risen to 65 percent since divorce was legalized in 1981 and divorce process was eased in 2005 through a government bill.

Today Spain has the second-highest divorce rate in the world, following Luxembourg. Though there is no official data for the last couple of years, divorce rate remains at over 60 percent.

Though Spain remains a predominantly Catholic country, less and less Spaniards are opting to get married in a Catholic church. /CGTN Photo

Victor Martin Organista, a Madrid attorney, said that after divorce first became legal in Spain it still remained a complicated and lengthy process. But since the system has evolved, especially after the introduction of the Express Divorce Bill 14 years ago, the process has become faster with a legal process of just three months.

Divorce rates, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute, are steadily going up in the age group of 40-49, the group that accounts for close to half of all divorces in Spain.

"After [the age of 40], the kids are grown up and more independent, the couple finds themselves face to face again, like in the beginning of the relationship so they ask themselves if they want to spend the second half of their lives with that person, if that person is the right one to reach happiness since the kids are not around anymore," said Organista.

"Also at this age, you have a stable economic situation, the house mortgage is paid and you have a bit more freedom to make decisions. It's also part of human evolution, a person in his 40s is a mature person and sometimes the couple follows different paths, it happens that the deep connections they once had don't exist anymore and the crazy in love feeling is now a monotony.”

Victor Martin Organista's law firm in Madrid has seen an annual increase of 10-15 percent in divorce cases. /CGTN Photo

Moreover, the role of women has played a key role in the rise of divorces. Traditionally in Spain, men have been the breadwinners and women have been playing a more domestic role.

But as the social structure has changed, women are becoming more independent and more and more women are stepping out to work.

Elizabeth Sirgrist, a psychotherapist for married couples, said that having a family has lost its meaning, importance and role.

"There's no background or history to back this here, like in Germany, where all kids go to school on their own. This is a new thing in Spain that is also pushing the whole family system down," she said.

The rate of weddings has also dropped in Spain in recent years. Religious weddings hit a historical low in the first half of 2016, accounting for only 22 percent of all Spanish weddings, according to the National Statistics Institute. In the early 2000s, three out of four Spanish weddings were still taking place in a Catholic church.

High divorce rate in Spain has also been reflecting the changes in Spanish society. /CGTN Photo

According to Mariano Martinez-Aedo Y Rojo, vice president of the Institute for Family Policy, Spanish society is changing and not for the better.

Though Spain has been recovering from recession for a sixth year, it still has the second-highest unemployment rate in Europe (close to 15 percent) and the third-highest among the young (32 percent). It is suspected that financial insecurity and lack of stable jobs have been keeping young people away from starting a family.

"A lot of young people don't think about marriage as a suitable option but more like an impossible deal, they prefer to be unmarried partners and then when they have a child they take the step forward to marriage... Marriage is a fragile thing and if [this situation] doesn't change it will change the [Spanish] society as we know it."