The rise of separatism in Western Europe has been widely announced by the media in recent years. Yet, scholars have been silent about it. Hence, this paper aims to provide an analysis of the evolution of Western European separatism in the last few decades. It suggests distinguishing between the electoral results of separatist parties and trends in support for independence in specific regions. It first offers a quantitative evaluation of the former from 1970 to 2015. It then zooms in on the regions that have been characterised by the most successful separatist parties and inquires whether their popularity has gone along with changes in support for independence. It shows that, in general, separatist parties in these regions have been able to increase their share of votes in the absence of substantial increases in demands for constitutional change.