Open data
Shared custody in Spain: the data observatory
Shared custody was granted in 50.8% of Spanish divorces involving minor children in 2025: 19,856 of the 39,066 opposite-sex divorces in which there were minors whose custody had to be decided. It is the highest figure in the series and the second consecutive year in which shared custody outranks sole maternal custody (45.3%), while paternal custody stays at 3.4%. Shared custody means both parents split day-to-day residence with the children according to a schedule set out in the settlement agreement or imposed by the judge; it is not the same as parental responsibility, which remains joint in almost every case regardless of where the children live. Source: Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE), Statistics on Annulments, Separations and Divorces.
Data last updated: . This page is reviewed once a year, when the INE publishes the new edition of the statistics (usually in July).
- Shared custody
- 50.8 %
- Growth over the series
- +22.4 pp
- Crossover year
- 2023
- Regional spread
- 63.2–33.3 %
of divorces with minor children, 2025
percentage points gained between 2016 and 2025
first year shared custody overtook maternal custody
from Rioja, La down to Ceuta
How shared custody has grown in Spain (2016-2025)
Shared custody rose from 28.4% in 2016 to 50.8% in 2025, overtaking sole maternal custody for the first time in 2023. The denominator behind every percentage is opposite-sex divorces in which there were minor children whose custody had to be awarded — not all divorces.
| Year | Divorces with minor children | Shared custody (cases) | Shared | Mother | Father |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 50,698 | 14,377 | 28.4 % | 66.1 % | 5.1 % |
| 2017 | 50,091 | 15,167 | 30.3 % | 64.9 % | 4.5 % |
| 2018 | 49,105 | 16,636 | 33.9 % | 61.4 % | 4.3 % |
| 2019 | 47,221 | 17,697 | 37.5 % | 58.0 % | 4.1 % |
| 2020 | 40,442 | 16,723 | 41.4 % | 54.4 % | 3.9 % |
| 2021 | 45,552 | 19,670 | 43.2 % | 52.9 % | 3.5 % |
| 2022 | 40,695 | 18,533 | 45.5 % | 50.6 % | 3.5 % |
| 2023 | 38,010 | 18,400 | 48.4 % | 47.8 % | 3.5 % |
| 2024 | 41,045 | 20,386 | 49.7 % | 46.6 % | 3.4 % |
| 2025 | 39,066 | 19,856 | 50.8 % | 45.3 % | 3.4 % |
The remainder up to 100% is custody awarded to other relatives or institutions (between 0.3% and 0.5% depending on the year).
Shared custody by autonomous community (2025)
The custody regime varies far more by territory than by year. Rioja, La tops the table with 63.2% of shared custody awards and Ceuta closes it with 33.3%, against a national average of 50.8%. The regions with their own civil law on guardianship are also the ones that rank highest.
| Autonomous community | Divorces with minor children | Shared custody (cases) | Shared | Mother |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rioja, La | 269 | 170 | 63.2 % | 33.1 % |
| Cataluña | 6,276 | 3,965 | 63.2 % | 33.8 % |
| País Vasco | 1,646 | 995 | 60.4 % | 36.9 % |
| Balears, Illes | 930 | 547 | 58.8 % | 34.1 % |
| Aragón | 1,034 | 580 | 56.1 % | 39.7 % |
| Canarias | 1,509 | 842 | 55.8 % | 39.6 % |
| Comunitat Valenciana | 4,700 | 2,516 | 53.5 % | 42.7 % |
| Asturias, Principado de | 792 | 402 | 50.8 % | 44.7 % |
| Madrid, Comunidad de | 5,413 | 2,719 | 50.2 % | 46.0 % |
| Cantabria | 489 | 243 | 49.7 % | 45.4 % |
| Castilla y León | 1,566 | 729 | 46.6 % | 48.7 % |
| Galicia | 2,021 | 940 | 46.5 % | 49.7 % |
| Navarra, Comunidad Foral de | 590 | 254 | 43.1 % | 53.2 % |
| Andalucía | 7,614 | 3,252 | 42.7 % | 53.1 % |
| Melilla | 61 | 26 | 42.6 % | 57.4 % |
| Castilla - La Mancha | 1,775 | 753 | 42.4 % | 53.2 % |
| Murcia, Región de | 1,490 | 602 | 40.4 % | 56.1 % |
| Extremadura | 781 | 284 | 36.4 % | 59.9 % |
| Ceuta | 108 | 36 | 33.3 % | 66.7 % |
Regions with few annual cases (Ceuta, Melilla, La Rioja) are highly volatile: a handful of rulings moves the percentage by several points from one year to the next.
Marital breakdowns in Spain (2016-2025)
In 2025 Spain recorded 83,683 annulments, separations and divorces, of which 80,785 were divorces. The context matters when reading the table above: shared custody percentages are growing over a number of breakdowns that has been falling for a decade.
| Year | Total breakdowns | Divorces | Separations | Year-on-year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 101,294 | 96,824 | 4,353 | -0.1 % |
| 2017 | 102,341 | 97,960 | 4,280 | +1.0 % |
| 2018 | 99,444 | 95,254 | 4,098 | -2.8 % |
| 2019 | 95,320 | 91,645 | 3,599 | -4.2 % |
| 2020 | 80,015 | 77,200 | 2,775 | -16.1 % |
| 2021 | 90,582 | 86,851 | 3,674 | +13.2 % |
| 2022 | 84,551 | 81,302 | 3,210 | -6.7 % |
| 2023 | 80,065 | 76,685 | 3,380 | -5.3 % |
| 2024 | 86,595 | 82,991 | 3,604 | +8.2 % |
| 2025 | 83,683 | 80,785 | 2,872 | -3.4 % |
Methodology
Every figure on this page comes from a single official source and can be reproduced table by table. There are no in-house estimates, no internal surveys and no numbers drawn from Niddo's user base.
- Statistical operation
- Estadística de Nulidades, Separaciones y Divorcios (ENSD)
- Publishing body
- Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE)
- Tables used
- Table 20692 — Divorcios entre cónyuges de diferente sexo según tipo de divorcio y cónyuge que debe ejercer la custodia
- Table 21549 — Divorcios entre cónyuges de diferente sexo según cónyuge que debe ejercer la custodia, por comunidad autónoma
- Table 20170 — Nulidades, separaciones y divorcios. Serie desde 2005
- Period covered
- 2016–2025
- Universe
- Annulment, separation and divorce proceedings resolved by Spanish courts and entered in the Civil Registry, plus divorces and separations processed before a notary. The custody breakdown is published only for divorces between opposite-sex spouses.
- Unit of analysis
- The court ruling or notarial deed, not the child. A divorce involving three children counts as one case.
- Denominator for percentages
- Opposite-sex divorces with minor children whose custody had to be awarded. Divorces where the INE records that custody does not apply (no children, or children already of age) are excluded; they account for roughly half of all divorces.
- Release date of the edition used
- — INE press release
- Retrieved on
- INE methodology
- Standardised methodological report for the operation
What this data does NOT measure
A figure without its limits is a figure that gets misread. These are the questions this statistic cannot answer, and it is worth knowing before citing it.
- It excludes unmarried couples. The statistics are built from annulment, separation and divorce proceedings: the break-up of a cohabiting couple with children leaves no trace here, even when it results in a court case over parental measures. Spain has no equivalent official statistic for that universe, so the real number of families sharing parenting is necessarily larger than these tables show.
- It measures what the ruling says, not what happens afterwards. The INE records the regime awarded in the ruling or deed — not the actual split of days, nor compliance, nor later modifications.
- It does not distinguish the rotation pattern. 'Shared' lumps together alternating weeks, 2-2-3, 3-4-4-3 and every other model. That breakdown is not published.
- The custody cross-tabulation covers only opposite-sex divorces. Same-sex divorces are published in separate tables with no custody breakdown.
- It measures no cost of any kind — not the cost of the proceedings, not the cost of running two households, not the children's extraordinary expenses. Any cost figure quoted alongside shared custody does not come from this source.
- It is a flow statistic, not a stock one. It counts rulings issued each year, not how many children currently live under each regime in Spain.
Definitions
The terms that appear in these tables and in any Spanish settlement agreement, defined precisely.
- Shared custody (custodia compartida)
- Custody regime in which both parents split day-to-day residence with the children after a break-up, following a schedule set out in the settlement agreement or imposed by the court. It splits time and also everyday responsibility: schooling, health, activities. It does not necessarily mean a 50/50 split of days.
- Parental responsibility (patria potestad)
- The set of rights and duties parents hold over their non-emancipated minor children: representing them, managing their assets and deciding on the essentials of their lives. After a divorce it remains joint unless a court expressly removes it, regardless of who the children live with. This is the most common confusion: you can lose custody without losing parental responsibility.
- Settlement agreement (convenio regulador)
- The document both parents sign and the judge approves to regulate the effects of separation or divorce: custody, contact arrangements, use of the family home, child support and the split of expenses. It is mandatory in an uncontested divorce and, once ratified, is directly enforceable in court.
- Parenting plan (plan de parentalidad)
- A document detailing how parental responsibility will be exercised day to day: schedule, handovers, holidays, communication between households, decision-making and dispute resolution. In Catalonia it must be filed in family proceedings; elsewhere in Spain it is voluntary, but is increasingly attached to the settlement agreement.
- Child support (pensión de alimentos)
- A recurring payment made by one parent to cover the children's maintenance, education and ordinary medical care. It is set according to the child's needs and each parent's means, and it does not automatically disappear under shared custody: where incomes are unequal, it can still apply.
- Extraordinary expenses (gastos extraordinarios)
- Children's costs that are neither foreseeable nor recurring and are therefore not covered by child support: uncovered medical treatment, orthodontics, glasses, tutoring or one-off activities. Unless agreed otherwise they are split 50/50 and require prior agreement between the parents. This is the item that generates the most enforcement disputes.
- Best interests of the child (interés superior del menor)
- The governing principle requiring that any decision affecting a child put their wellbeing ahead of the adults' interests. It is the criterion a judge applies when deciding the custody regime, and the one that allows a court to depart from what the parents agreed if the agreement harms the child.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of custody awards in Spain are shared custody?
In 2025, shared custody was granted in 50.8% of Spanish divorces involving minor children, according to the INE's Statistics on Annulments, Separations and Divorces published on 23 July 2026. In absolute terms that is 19,856 cases out of 39,066 opposite-sex divorces with minors involved. Sole maternal custody stood at 45.3% and sole paternal custody at 3.4%.
Which Spanish region grants the most shared custody?
In 2025 La Rioja and Catalonia lead, both at 63.2% of shared custody awards among divorces with minor children, followed by the Basque Country (60.4%) and the Balearic Islands (58.8%). At the other end are Ceuta (33.3%) and Extremadura (36.4%). The national average is 50.8%, so the gap between the highest and lowest region exceeds 29 percentage points.
When did shared custody overtake sole maternal custody in Spain?
In 2023. That year shared custody reached 48.4% against 47.8% for maternal custody and became, for the first time, the most common regime in Spanish divorces with minor children. In 2016 the picture was very different: 28.4% shared versus 66.1% maternal. Shared custody has gained 22.4 percentage points in ten years.
How many divorces are there in Spain each year?
Spain recorded 83,683 annulments, separations and divorces in 2025, 3.4% fewer than the previous year. Of those, 80,785 were divorces, 2,872 separations and 27 annulments. The total has been falling for a decade: in 2016 it was 101,294.
Does this data include unmarried couples who separate?
No. The INE's Statistics on Annulments, Separations and Divorces only covers annulment, separation and divorce proceedings — that is, the breakdown of marriages. The separation of a cohabiting couple with children does not appear in these figures, even if it led to court proceedings on parental measures. Spain has no equivalent official statistic for that universe, so the real number of families sharing parenting is larger than these tables show.
How to cite this observatory
The content of this page may be reproduced with attribution. If you are a journalist or researcher and need the full series or a breakdown that is not published here, get in touch.
Niddo, 'Shared custody in Spain: the data observatory', based on the INE Statistics on Annulments, Separations and Divorces (2025). Available at https://niddoapp.com/en/observatorio
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