Spain has a long history of Islamic tradition under its belt. From cuisine to architecture, the southern European country has been linked to the North of Africa through many common elements. At the end of 2023, there were approximately 2.41 million Muslims in Spain, most of them of Spanish and Moroccan nationality, with upwards of eight hundred thousand believers in both cases. With a Muslim population of more than 660,000 people, Catalonia was home to the largest Muslim community in Spain as of the same date.

The not so Catholic Spain

Believers of a religion other than Catholicism accounted for approximately 3 percent of the Spanish population, according to the most recent data. Although traditionally a Catholic country, Spain saw a decline in the number of believers over the past years. Compared to previous years, when the share of believers accounted for slightly over 70 percent of the Spanish population, the Catholic community lost ground, while still being the major religion for the foreseable future.

A Catholic majority, a practicing minority

Going to mass is no longer a thing in Spain, or so it would seem when looking at the latest statistics about the matter: 50 percent of those who consider themselves Catholics almost never attend any religious service in 2024. The numbers increased until 2019, from 55.5 percent of the population never attending religious services in 2011 to 63.1 percent in 2019. The share of population that stated to be practicing believers and go to mass every Sunday and on the most important holidays accounted for only 15.5 percent.

Spain: Sunni Muslims as percent of the total population: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.0 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for Spain from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

According to a survey conducted in Spain in September 2024, **** percent of respondents stated they considered themselves lapsed ********. The second-largest denomination was practicing *********, with nearly ** percent of respondents.

In 2023, Catalonia ranked as the Spanish autonomous community with the highest number of Muslims with more than *******. It was followed by Andalusia with approximately *******.

In 2023, Andalusia featured more than ******* foreign Muslims and approximately ******* Spanish Muslims, which represented the third highest amount of Spanish Muslims and the second highest of foreign Muslims. Catalonia featured the highest number for both foreign and national Muslims that year.

Catholicism was the main religion in Spain as of 2022, with a total of **** million adherents. Islam followed second, with *** followers. Catalonia was the autonomous community with the largest number of Muslims in Spain.

Although traditionally a Catholic country, Spain saw a decline in the number of believers over the past years. Compared to 2011, when the share of believers accounted for slightly over 70 percent of the Spanish population, the Catholic community lost approximately 15 percentage points of their faithful by June 2025 with a share of 56.1 percent of the surveyed population. Believers of a religion other than Catholicism accounted for approximately 3.6 percent of the Spanish population in 2025 according to the most recent data. A Catholic majority, a practicing minority Going to mass is no longer a thing in Spain, or so it would seem when looking at the latest statistics about the matter: over 47 percent of those who consider themselves Catholics almost never attend any religious service in June 2025. The not so Catholic Spain Around 37 percent of the surveyed population stated to be either non-believers or full atheists in 2025. Non-believers or people that do not have a religious faith fluctuated over the past years with the latest figures showing a 21 percent of people that categorize themselves as so. The share of Spanish atheists is on the rise according to the most recent surveys, taking up 13.3 percent of respondents in June 2025.

In 2023, there were over than ******* Muslims with Spanish nationality in the Community of Madrid, followed by Muslims with Moroccan nationality with figures of about ***** individuals.

In the school year 2023/2024, Spain had *** Muslim teachers hired. In that year, Andalusia was the community with the highest number of Muslim teachers hired with ** teachers, followed by Murcia with ** teachers.

As of May 2023, the Popular Party (PP) is the party that has gained the most voting intentions from the Spanish Catholic population, with nearly 40 percent of practicing Catholics and approximately 27 percent of non-practicing Catholics intending to vote for this party. The preference of non-believing atheists, with more than 22 percent, is towards the Sumar party. As for believers in other religions, more than 24 percent stated that they would not vote in the July 23 elections.

Since 1980, the percentage of nonreligious people has more than quadrupled. In that year, 8.5 percent of the Spanish population was nonreligious. By 2024, more than 39 percent of the Spanish population reported not being religious.

In 2023, there were more than ******* Muslims with Spanish nationality in the Region of Valencia, followed by Muslims with Moroccan nationality with figures that reached over ****** individuals.

Power law distributions with the calculated parameters and goodness of fit to the data of surnames as well as their Ewens-Waterson tests are shown. FST-statistic value for the first versus second surnames is provided.n, sample size.k, number of different surnames.aP-value n.s. (>0.05).Observed surnames in the Andalusian sample.

1Power-law distribution parameters: A = 38.747, B = -1.267; R2 = 0.6801.2Power-law distribution parameters: A = 293.28, B = -3.799; R2 = 0.9551.Occurrences-Abundances of Y-STR haplotypes and number of first surname—haplotype (Ht) coincidences in the Andalusian sample.

In the school year 2021/2022, there were ***** primary school teachers in Andalusia. Of these, more than ***** were teachers of the Catholic religion, ** were teachers of the Evangelical religion and ** were teachers of the Islamic religion.

In 2022, around ** percent of Muslims surveyed said they had already been the victim of religious discrimination in Spain. Followers of the Jewish religion were the second most likely to report discrimination, with around ** percent.

In 2023, there were around ******* Muslims with Moroccan nationality in the autonomous community of Catalonia, only behind Muslims with Spanish nationality with figures that exceeded ******* individuals.

In the ********* school year, about **** million students were enrolled in Catholic religious education. In that year, elementary school students were the largest group, with about **** million enrolled.

In 2023, the number of Muslim communities in Spain amounted to approximately ***** in total. Out of the ***** Muslim entities located in the country, *** were found in the autonomous community of Catalonia.

The "https://www.pewresearch.org/american-trends-panel-datasets/" Target="_blank">American Trends Panel (ATP), created by "https://www.pewresearch.org/our-methods/u-s-surveys/the-american-trends-panel/" Target="_blank">Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. Panelists participate via self-administered web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access at home are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection. Interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish. The panel is being managed by "https://www.ipsos.com/en" Target="_blank">Ipsos.

Data in this report are drawn from the panel wave conducted March 1 to March 7, 2021. A total of 12,055 panelists responded out of 13,545 who were sampled, for a response rate of 89 percent. The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition is four percent. The break-off rate among panelists who logged on to the survey and completed at least one item is one percent. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 12,055 respondents is plus or minus one-and-a-half percentage points.

The ATP Wave 84 asked questions about religion in politics and tolerance.