Yes, there is a small, organized Jewish community in the Canary Islands, primarily centered in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria and with a growing presence in Tenerife. The community consists of roughly 20 families, with Chabad of the Canary Islands-Tenerife establishing a center in 2022 to support Jewish life, including for residents and tourists.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews began arriving in the Canary Islands in the late 15th century, due to the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition. The first Jewish settlers lived on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma.
The major cities that Jewish life centers around are Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga, with additional communities in Alicante, Cadiz, the Canary Islands, Oviedo, Marbella, Majorca, Torremolinos, Valencia, and Seville. In Spanish North Africa, Jews reside in Ceuta and Melilla.
As in the rest of Spain, the majority religion in the Canary Islands is the Catholic Church. The Catholic religion has been the majority since the Conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century.
The Canary Islands are on some travel "no list" for 2026, not due to immediate danger, but because of overtourism's unsustainable strain on resources, causing water shortages, environmental damage, housing crises, and local frustration, leading to anti-tourism protests and highlighting the need for a tourist "breather" for the islands to cope with massive visitor numbers.
Why Spain Owns the Canary Islands Despite Their Proximity to Africa
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“ It said the key issues highlighted by the list are “overtouristed sites, fragile ecosystems and communities struggling to stay afloat”. Fodor's said: “The No List serves a gentle but pointed nudge to ease up on a spot for now–not forever–and give a rest to any location that clearly needs a breather.”
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, just over 17,700 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands in 2025, compared to nearly 47,000 in 2024 and almost 40,000 in 2023.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in ...
On March 31, 1492, an edict of expulsion ordered all Jews to leave Spain by the end of July. All who remained had to be baptized under threat of death.
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However, when a specific model to evaluate the ancestry of admixed populations was used, this showed that the autosomal DNA of Canarian people is 71,4% European, 26,7% North African, and 1,9% Sub-Saharan, being the highest North African and Sub-Saharan components at an individual level 38,2% and 9,5% respectively.
Between 20,000 and 50,000 people across the islands took part in coordinated protests against the excess tourism, which campaigners argue has damaged the welfare of the population and the islands' environment. The protests were backed by environmental organisations including Greenpeace and the WWF.
The modern Canarian population is mainly the result of the admixture of natives of North African origin and European colonizers. However, additional migratory flows reached the islands due to the importation of enslaved Africans to cultivate sugarcane and the intense commercial contact with the American continent.
Non-EU citizens can apply for Spain's Non-Lucrative Visa, the Digital Nomad Visa, or the Golden Visa if they plan to invest in property. EU citizens have the right to live and work in Spain but must still register as residents after three months of stay.
Christianity, the largest religion in the United States, experienced a 20th-century high of 91% of the total population in 1976. This declined to 73.7% by 2016 and 64% in 2022.
Researchers Helmuth Nyborg and Richard Lynn compared belief in God and IQs. Using data from a U.S. study of 6,825 adolescents, the authors found that the average IQ of atheists was 6 points higher than the average IQ of non-atheists.
The "Beckham Loophole" (or Beckham Law) in Spain is a special tax regime for skilled foreign workers, named after David Beckham, allowing them to pay a flat 24% tax on Spanish income (up to €600k) for six years, treating them as non-residents to avoid higher progressive rates and generally exempting foreign income, with recent updates expanding eligibility to remote workers and entrepreneurs. This "loophole" allows expats to significantly reduce their tax burden by paying non-resident rates on Spanish income, while foreign earnings remain untaxed in Spain, a major advantage over standard resident taxation.
