In the first quarter of 2025, Spain saw an alarming 44% increase in personal insolvency proceedings, marking a new quarterly record. More and more highly indebted individuals are finding a way out of their financial distress through bankruptcy proceedings.
The latest figures from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) reveal a troubling picture of the financial situation for many Spanish households. Between January and March of this year, 15,833 private individuals who are not entrepreneurs filed for insolvency, representing a massive 44% increase compared to the same period last year. This marks a new quarterly record. This trend underscores the growing importance of insolvency proceedings as a lifeline for those who can no longer pay their debts after exhausting private agreements with creditors.
A Continuous Upward Trend in Personal Bankruptcies
The volume of individual insolvency proceedings registered in the first quarter exceeds the 10,992 filed between January and March 2024 by nearly 5,000. Although the increase is more moderate compared to the last quarter of the previous year (14,153 filings), the upward trend that has been ongoing for years continues. This development offers highly indebted individuals protection against foreclosures and allows for the renegotiation or partial reduction of debts.
Regional Focus: Catalonia at the Forefront
Most insolvency proceedings were registered in Catalonia with 3,656 filings, accounting for 23.1% of the total. This is followed by Madrid (2,839), Andalusia (2,338), and the Valencian Community (1,866). These regions, which are also the most populous in Spain, lead the ranking of areas with the highest number of proceedings. It is particularly noteworthy that Murcia, alongside Catalonia, is the only region exceeding the ratio of more than 50 insolvencies per 100,000 inhabitants.
Historical Development and Outlook
Since the CGPJ began collecting statistics in 2016, following a 2015 legal amendment that made courts of first instance competent in these matters, the number of personal insolvencies has continuously increased. At that time, only 393 insolvencies of non-business natural persons were registered in the first three months. Within nine years, this number has multiplied fortyfold, exceeding the one-thousand mark per quarter for the first time in early 2019 and the 10,000 mark in 2024.
This surge in non-entrepreneurial insolvencies is the main driver behind the increase in overall insolvency proceedings, as they account for 87.9% of the total. In the first quarter of 2025, a total of 18,017 applications were filed, a 37% increase compared to the same period last year. In contrast, insolvencies filed by entrepreneurs increased by only 4.4%, while those by companies remained stable with a slight decrease of 0.2%.
Household and Corporate Debt
In parallel with this development, the financial accounts of the Spanish economy from the Bank of Spain show an increase in household and corporate debt. Household debt rose from 690 billion euros in 2023 to 695 billion euros in 2024, and corporate debt from 989.5 billion euros to 1.01 trillion euros. Although their share of GDP has relatively decreased (43.7% and 63.5% respectively), the debt-to-GDP ratio, including inter-company debt, rises to 83.2%.
Commercial courts declared 14,849 insolvency proceedings between January and March, 46.3% more than in the same period of 2024. In 54 cases, the settlement phase began, allowing for an agreement between debtors and creditors, while in 823 cases, the liquidation phase was initiated. These figures reflect the ongoing financial challenges many people in Spain are facing.
