page_title: Religion in Spain
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Spain
caption_attribution_description: Galego: O Obradoiro. Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.English: Facade of "O Obradoiro", cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.Français&#160;: Façade de l’Obradoiro, cathédrale de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle à Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, Galice, Espagne.
context_page_description: The major religion in Spain has been Catholic Christianity since the Reconquista, with a small minority of other Christian and non-Christian religions and high levels of secularization as of 2020. The Pew Research Center ranked Spain as the 16th out of 34 European countries in levels of religiosity, which is lower than Italy, Portugal and Poland, but much higher than the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries. There is no official religion and religious freedom is protected: the Spanish Constitution of 1978 abolished Catholicism as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society.
  Catholicism has been present in the Iberian Peninsula since Roman times. The Spanish Empire spread it to the Philippine islands and Latin America, which are now predominantly Catholic countries. However, since the end of the Francoist dictatorship practical secularization has grown strongly. Only 3% of Spaniards consider religion as one of their three most important values, lower than the 5% European average.
  A Survey published in 2019 by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of Spaniards had a favorable view of Muslims, while 76% had a favorable view about Jews.
context_section_description: The major religion in Spain has been Catholic Christianity since the Reconquista, with a small minority of other Christian and non-Christian religions and high levels of secularization as of 2020. The Pew Research Center ranked Spain as the 16th out of 34 European countries in levels of religiosity, which is lower than Italy, Portugal and Poland, but much higher than the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries.  There is no official religion and religious freedom is protected: the Spanish Constitution of 1978 abolished Catholicism as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. 
  Catholicism has been present in the Iberian Peninsula since Roman times. The Spanish Empire spread it to the Philippine islands and Latin America, which are now predominantly Catholic countries. However, since the end of the Francoist dictatorship practical secularization has grown strongly. Only 3% of Spaniards consider religion as one of their three most important values, lower than the 5% European average. 
  A Survey published in 2019 by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of Spaniards had a favorable view of Muslims, while 76% had a favorable view about Jews. Spain has been seen as a graveyard for Protestant missionaries: only 1% of the population of Spain is Protestant and 92% of Spain's 8,131 villages do not have any evangelical protestant church. 
  According to the Spanish Center for Sociological Research, 68.3% of Spanish citizens self-identify as Catholics, (46.8% define themselves as not practising, while 21.5% as practising), 2.6% as followers of other faiths (including Islam, Protestant Christianity, Buddhism etc.), and 27.9% identify as Atheists (12.5%), agnostics (7.3%) or non-believers (8.1%) as of October 2019. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious worship. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 31.9% never attend mass, 30% barely ever attend mass, 16% attend mass a few times a year, 7.1% two or three times per month, 11.5% every Sunday and holidays, and 2% multiple times per week.
  Although a majority of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, many younger generations ignore the Church's moral doctrines on issues such as pre-marital sex, sexual orientation, marriage or contraception. The total number of parish priests shrank from 24,300 in 1975 to 18,500 in 2018, with an average age of 65.5 years. By contrast, some expressions of popular religiosity still thrive, often linked to local festivals.
caption: Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Galicia in a World Heritage Site.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2010:07:31 16:39:37", "Image Copyright": "Luis Miguel Bugallo Sanchez", "Image ExifOffset": "202", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "710", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "16092", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:07:18 18:37:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:07:18 18:37:39", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2827819/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Partial", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "160", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "02", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "02", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5616000/1459", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1872000/479", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}