Spain raises its minimum age for marriage from 14 to 16

Spain’s conservative government also raised the age of consent from 13 to 16, a measure it said was necessary to combat paedophilia, while decriminalising sexual relations between teens of the same age.

It brings Spanish law in line with most other members of the European Union and comes after the country raised the minimum age for consent for sexual relations from 13 to 16.

The legislation follows continued pressure from child protection groups and United Nations experts, who asked the country to address the matter in 2010.

The new law is welcomed by many local children rights organizations.

A judge previously could have allowed 14 year olds to marry if requested.

In Spain, marriages between minors are increasingly rare.

But in the 1990s there were 2,678 marriages involving at least one under 16, and there were 12,867 in the 1980s.

The minimum age of marrying will now by 16, up from 14, which had been the lowest marrying age in all of Europe.

In France, Belgium, Sweden, and many other European countries, the minimum marriage age is 18, according to the BBC.

Very few children under 16 have married in Spain in recent years – just five last year and two in 2013, according to official statistics. Women, on the other hand, married at an average age of 32.6 years, which is up from 28.7 years 10 years ago.

Despite the evidence of the practice’s decline, the United Nations’ experts and child protection groups that lobbied for Spain to increase the marriage limit for the past several years were thrilled with the law’s adjustment, according to the Daily Mail.