Divorce and separation in the over-65s doubles in a decade
Friday, October 3, 2014 @ 6:59 PM
THE number of couples aged over 65 who have separated or divorced has doubled in the last year in Spain, according to the national institute of statistics (INE).
And Spain has the fourth-highest proportion of pension-age residents among the population on the planet.
Most-recent census figures date back to the end of 2011, when 17.3% of Spain's headcount was aged over 65, with 3.5 million in total being aged over 80.
These figures show that in 2001, a total of 1.36% per cent of couples in their late 60s or older had split up, but by 2011, this had risen to 3.17%, having more than doubled.
Although 60% of the over-65s live in couples and the number of widows and widowers fell from 33.2% in 1991 to 31% in 2011 then to less than 29% now, sole occupants in Spain are much less commonly found than in other European nations.
In Spain, 21% live alone, compared with 40% in northern Europe, and those who are single, widowed, divorced or separated normally live with other family members.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com