Newsdesk
Palma
The Balearics have the second highest divorce rate in Spain, according to data published yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
The islands average a total of four separations per thousand people, and is second only to the Canary islands (with a ratio of 4.3) in terms of Spanish regions. The national average is well below that of the Balearics' at 3.3, while Extremadura registered only 2.23 divorces per thousand inhabitants.
During 2006 there was a total of 4'023 marriage separations in the Balearic Islands, the majority of which were in the form of divorces, while 390 are registered as separations' and only five cases were counted as annulments.
Throughout Spain, 126'952 people went through divorce proceedings, four times the numbetr in 2005 (32'627 people). In total, 145'919 Spanish citizens' marriages dissolved last year, 87% of which were divorces.
The large number of ruptured marriages affected those between the ages of 40 and 49, with the average age for men to suffer a separation at 43.2 years old, and 40.5 years old for women. The average length of time a couple had been married before divorce, meanwhile, was 14.7 years, compared to nine in the case of annulments and 17.8 in terms of separations.
In 51.3% of all cases of broken marriages small children were involved, almost 30% of which involved a single child. 57.2% of all separative procedures took less than six months to be completed, while 12.5% took place over the course of more than a year. 72% of all divorce proceedings were completed in under six months, while only 4.9% were stretched out over a year. The Balearics's ratio came second in the list of high divorce rate, with Catalunya third at 3.85.