• The legal process required in order to obtain a divorce. In Spain this process involves legal separation during which the case for separation must be presented before a judge, a waiting period of at least one year after legal separation has been granted, reconcilliation attempts must be made and grounds for divorce must also be established. These legal processes are currently under review.
• The Catholic Church. 94% of Spainiards are members of the Catholic church which opposes divorce.
• Social Attitudes. Since divorce in Spain was legalised in 1981 the divorce rate has increased, however the social stigma of divorce still affects many people.
• Marriage rate - The marriage rate in Spain has declined from seven marriages per 1000 population in 1981 to 4.9 per 1000 today. This rate is lower than most European countries. As fewer people are getting married (Many are opting for a single life or common-law marriage) fewer divorces will result.

Divorce affects families and society in a number of ways. Every family and every divorce is different. The effects of divorce on children can range from mild to severe and from short-term to long-term.

• Health, behavioral, learning and emotional problems (either arising from the divorce or aggravated by it)


• Financial problems (including child support payments which are not made and child support payments made to a previous partner)


• Loss of family (including extended family)


• New family members (step-parents, step-brothers and sisters)


• Child abuse (this is more common in stepfamilies


• Crime, drug abuse, teen pregnancy and suicide (all are more common among children of divorced parents.


• Higher school drop-out rates.


• Religious worship often decreases or stops after the parents divorce.

As families are part of society, anything which affects a significant proportion of families will also affect society as a whole. In addition to this, costs associated with the effects of divorce such as social security, legal assistance (for custody, property and child support issues) and additional childcare are subsidised by the tax-payers in most developed nations.

To get an idea of how many marriages end in divorce, take a look at the number of divorces per 100 marriages, where Belgium tops the list at 59.8 divorces for every 100 marriages.

Only six countries are in the top 20 of both divorces per 1000 people and divorces per 100 marriages.

The United States and Russia are first and third, respectively, for divorce rates per 1000 people. But they are first and second in the number or marriages per 1000 people per year, and don’t appear in the top 20 of divorces per 1000 marriages.