Spain becomes EU country will highest divorce rate

Madrid, Spain, May 25, 2007 / 10:14 am

According to a report by the Institute for Family Policy, with more than 141,817 divorces in 2006—one every 3.7 minutes—Spain has become the country with the highest divorce rate in the European Union.

The Institute also pointed out that the number of divorces grew in 2006 by 51% from the previous year and by 277% from the period of 2001-2006.

According to the Institute, the Canary Islands, the Beleares Islands and Catalonia are the regions with the highest divorce rates, and Castilla-La Mancha has seen the greatest jump in abortions since 2004, with the rate more than tripling.

Eduardo Hertfelder, the director of the Institute for Family Policy, said the report should cause Spanish society and the country’s leaders to take “urgent measures to stop this authentic social suicide.  A true change of direction is necessary regarding the legal measures, the social and cultural protection of marriage and the family in order to straighten out this tremendous crisis that we are experiencing in Spain.”

“The data is irrefutable,” Hertfelder said, “and it points to a failure of the government that implements laws—like the law on express divorce—which provokes an increase in the breakdown of the family in Spain.”

The lack of a plan by the government to reinforce the family shows the lack of concern for the problems facing the family, Hertfelder said, adding that the government should reverse the current “express divorce” and should implement “support measures for the family.”