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The Statistics on annulments, separations and divorces provides annual data on the judgments, decrees and notarial deeds in accordance with the regulatory legislation on the matter. Both aspects of these rulings as of the spouses affected characteristics are investigated, providing information about the applicant, the existence of prior legal separation, the fault type, who pays, where appropriate, the alimony and child support, who take charge of the custody of minor children, the date of marriage, the marital status at marriage, number of children under age or dependent older age, and date of birth, gender and nationality.
The statistics cover all courts and notary's offices that resolve disputes on annulments, separations and divorces in the Spanish territory.
The statistical units are the judgments, decrees or notarial deeds about annulments, separations and divorces.
The statistical population consists of the set of judgements, decrees or notarial deeds relating to the processes of annulments, separations and divorces issued by the competent courts in the matter (Courts of First Instance, Courts of First Instance and Magistrates' Courts and Violence against Women Courts), and by the notary's offices.
The statistics cover the whole of the national territory.
National, autonomous and provincial information is provided.
These statistics are carried out every year.
Results are available on the website of INE since 1998.
There is not a proper base period, as it is a long-term survey. The first publication year was 1998
Number of resolutions,decrees, and notarial deeds.
The reference period is the calendar year.
Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2023
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
This statistical operation is carried out by the National Statistics Institute as established in the agreement signed by the INE and the General Council of the Judiciary Branch on 14th February 1995, and later addendums.
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The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
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The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
The results of the Statistics on annulments, separations and divorces are disseminated annually.
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
All the information related to the annulments, separations and divorces Statistics is published in the INE website:
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
The results are available at the INE website (Society -> Security and Justice).
Number of accesses AC1=117181
Number of accesses AC2=838
Access to microdata would be subject to the guarantees of confidentiality and statistical legislation on this matter.
There is the possibility of requesting customised information (protecting always statistical secrecy) to the INE user assistance service. For further information check the following link:
The methodology is available on the INE website:
Likewise, this standardised methodological report constitutes a detailed source of information on several of the methodological aspects of the statistics.
Metadata completeness - rate AC3= 100%
Sections 10.6 to 17 of this standardized methodological report contain the different quality aspects associated with these statistics. It is the user-oriented quality report for this statistic.
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
In order to guarantee the reliability of the statistics, the possible coverage and content errors that could affect the quality of the information are detected and analysed during the annual processing of the statistics.
The legal grounds for these statistics constitutes the main element or tool for the design of their quality framework. Therefore, it is compulsory for courts and notary's offices to deliver to the INE the information they are requested.
As regards collected information, there are internal automatic controls of the computer application designed for collecting information, which contribute to guaranteeing the quality of its content. Furthermore, there are year-on-year controls and comparisons of the collected information with the purpose of assessing its coverage and quality and, if necessary, improving the available information. We also carry out comparative studies with external information sources, with the aim of detecting potential coverage lacks or data failures.
Amendments have been made in the methods of purification and automatic imputation in order to improve the quality of the results offered.
The wealth of statistical information provides an approach to socio-demographic and social interest to the study of divorces, so that the various statistical processes are geared to ensure the quality of the results offered and marginal frequency distributions.
As a strong point of statistics include the wealth of information on socio-demographic variables that are derived from the Statistics on annulments, separations and divorces.
Among the weak points in order to improve future it should be noted the decrease in the non-response rate.
The main users of these statistics are :
-Ministries and other public bodies. (Ministry of Justice and General Council of the Judiciary Branch)
-Researchers and Universities (Faculties and Departments of Law and Social Sciences).
-Territorial administrations (Autonomous Communities, councils...)
Companies and non-profit institutions (especially those linked with social issues or sociological analysis of suggestibility).
- Individuals
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
User Satisfaction Surveys can be consulted on the website of INE in the category of: Methods and Projects -> Quality in the INE and Code of Practice -> INE Quality Management -> User surveys , where you can see the valuation of the sector "Society: Education, Culture, Health, Justice " which is framed in this statistical operation, which can orient to the opinion of users on it.
When preparing the statistics exploitation plan, we have taken into account the specific needs of users, and therefore we have included in the research those variables considered to be relevant for this type of legal proceedings. The new proposals suggested by users will be considered regarding future methodological changes.
Even if no european regulations, the Annulments, Separations and Divorces Statistics supply requested information in the National Statistical Plan.
herefore, Data completeness - rate R1= 100%
These statistics are exhaustive, therefore there are no sampling errors. With respect to non-sampling errors, the necessary studies and controls are carried out in order to assess them and restrict their magnitude.
This concept is not applicable for it is an exhaustive research.
Sampling error - indicators A1= Not applicable.
During information processing, non-sampling errors (non response, errors of completion, etc.) are detected and restricted where possible. In any case, the fact that it is compulsory for Courts to notify the INE the information regarding annulments, separations and divorces implies an additional guarantee of the authenticity and integrity of the data provided. The electronic questionnaire web allows a significant reduction of errors in recording and enables the consistency of the information (consistency of totals and disaggregated).
Over coverage rate A2= 0.18%
Common units proportion A3= not applicable
Unit non response rate A4= 33.43%
Item non response rate A5= 1.73%
Imputation rate A7= 1.73%
The results of the statistics are published before seven months after the reference period of the information has finalised.
Time lag - first results TP1= Not applicable
Time lag - final results TP2= 7m
The dissemination of the results is carried out in accordance with the structural statistics availability calendar that the INE compiles and publishes each year.
Punctuality - delivery and publication TP3= The calendar is fulfilled
The availability of a methodology, a source of information and a common processing in the entire geographical scope, guarantees comparability of results between the different provinces and Autonomous Communities.
Comparability with other countries of the European Union, not being subject to this statistical Community regulation is conditional on the legislation and statistics that take place in each country.
A temporary comparability of information for the period 1998-2012 can be made, being the number of elements comparable of this time series 15.
However, the data provided since 2013 (hereinafter referred to absolute values of each type of judgment) are not directly comparable with those obtained in the previous series because of the availability of new auxiliary sources of information on the judiciary, they have improved processes and elevation estimation of the results of this statistic, producing in 2013 a break in the series.
Length of comparable time series CC2= 11
There is a statistic of the General Council of the Judiciary Branch (GCJB) measuring the activity of the competent courts in the matter, as the number of cases dealt with nullity, separation and divorce. The Statistics on annulments, separations and divorces by the INE measures that same activity in terms of final judgments and decrees, the end of the trial, when the data GCJB measured at baseline, when demand arises. Furthermore, information about notarial deeds is also obteined from Civil Registry.
The internal coherence of the statistics is a consequence of the application of a set of methodological criteria and a detailed analysis of the possible inconsistencies existing among its different variables.
The estimation of the budgetary credit necessary to finance these statistics, as set out in the 2024 Annual Programme, comes to a total of 71.72 thousand euros.
The burden on respondents is non-existent, since these statistics are obtained from the information provided by administrative sources.
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
The data provided are final.
Not applicable data review in practice, since there is no progress nor interim results.
Average revision rate A6-MAR= Not applicable
Average revision rate A6-RMAR= Not applicable
The source data for this statistic is derived from the collection by questionnaire web of information on sentences Annulments, separations and divorces provided by the competent courts themselves in the field, and by the notary's offices.
Data is obtained annually.
Collecting statistics corresponding to this bulletin is performed continuously throughout the year by the corresponding web forms.
The entire collection process is implemented within the Neutral Point platform integrated in the web space of the General Council of the Judiciary Branch. This collection system to manage information in a more efficient data requests to the various courts taking advantage of new information and telecommunications technologies made available to users on the website of the GCJB.
The online electronic questionnaire includes automatic filtering controls in order to avoid potential inconsistencies.
Furthermore, information is also obteined from General Council of the Notaries.
During the process of editing and debugging information completeness and consistency of the contents of the various registers recorded under study, the first indicators obtained and charges on national, regional and provincial coverage and the first tab of the main variables are generated .
The fundamental part of the process of purification of information and treatment of invalid values and inconsistencies are carried out by ADI (Automatic Detection and Imputation), a generalized editing and imputation system developed by the INE and widely applicable in different surveys over time.
Once the editing phase is carried out the calculation of the adjustment factors and the results are tabulated.
The last stage before the dissemination of information is oriented to analyze the aggregate and verify the consistency of the information provided information.
This statistics is disseminated annually.
No adjustment is made.
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