Spain's 2025 statistics reveal 49 women and one man were killed by their partner or ex

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Since such records began, gender-based violence claims the life of a woman every six days on average, while a man dies every 52 days at the hands of his partner or ex, according to judiciary records

Doménico Chiappe

Madrid

Monday, 30 March 2026, 10:41

She was 46 years old, had made police reports on her husband "several times previously" and then she killed him last year. She ran him over in the street with her own car.

As a victim of gender-based violence, she was already registered in the Viogén protection system (the statewide police-monitoring system of at-risk individuals). However, she was classified as being at low-risk. She decided to put an end to the abuse that was going on under the roof she shared with her husband, a 65-year-old Spanish national.

"This is a case classified as 'responsive violence'," stated the judiciary in its press release, because her husband had been reported "for assault".

In addition to gender-based violence committed by men, the report, published this Thursday by Spain's agency that monitors domestic and gender-based violence, also deals with "intimate domestic violence". This is where the opposite is recorded, men who are murdered by the woman with whom they have or have had a romantic relationship, or a same-sex partner.

On average, according to data collected since 2009, the men murdered are 50 years old and lived with their attackers (82 per cent), although only 42 per cent were married. The female perpetrators in these reverse cases, which occur every 52 days, are 43 years old on average. In this case, the only one that happened in 2025, the woman was arrested "minutes after committing the crime", something that happens in three out of every four cases.

Looking across the years since records began, the most frequent crime scene, in 74 per cent of the cases, is the shared residence and the most common weapon used is a knife (65.5 per cent). This has happened 121 times in just over 16 years, totalling approximately seven victims per year. To note, "last year there were no recorded murders caused by same-sex domestic violence, which occurs within current or former same-sex couples, whether between men or women".

Few prior reports

In terms of gender-based violence, a woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner every six days in Spain, the average since specific records on such crimes began in 2003. The figure is slightly less for 2025: every 7.5 days. In total, 49 women lost their lives to gender-based violence last year, according to these latest figures from the judiciary.

Of these women, eight out of ten lived with their abuser and two out of ten had filed a prior report to the police. "Despite being one of the lowest annual figures since records began, it reveals data that highlights the need to continue improving the tools available to the authorities to protect victims", states this report.

Of the 49 victims killed, eleven had filed a prior complaint (22 per cent), the "lowest percentage on record", which stands at an average of 25 per cent. Five were protected by restraining orders. However, of the eleven who filed police reports, seven were still living with their abuser. Although the average age of the female plaintiffs was 42, those aged 56 or over reported nothing.

"The most common weapon used in 2025 to commit crimes of gender-based violence was a knife, deployed in 56.5 per cent of the cases for which this data is available (in three cases, the weapon used to commit the crime was not recorded). Fifteen per cent of the deaths last year were caused by asphyxiation or strangulation". Most of the crimes were committed in July, in the home and 39 children were orphaned.

Violence against children

Gender-based violence can also be directed at children. The children murdered by their parent(s) were under the age of ten in 74 per cent of these cases. In 2025, three children died this way, bringing the total to 65 over the past 12 years. In two of last year's cases, the perpetrator was the child's biological father and, in the third case, it was the mother's current partner. Two of the children lived with the murderer and the crime was committed in the shared home, as is the case in three out of every four such crimes. "As for the method used, one in three cases involved a knife, which is the most frequently used on record (35 per cent of cases), while the other two were caused by asphyxiation and poisoning," states the report. Two of the perpetrators were arrested and one committed suicide.

There are five victims of 'vicarious violence' (harm done to a child to spite a parent) on average every year. These children, considered as "extremely vulnerable", are, on average, under seven years old. Those who commit such a violent crime are 41 years old on average and have not usually been reported before to the police. Only a third of them had prior records for such crimes.