Spain has experienced a significant decline in traditional religiosity, with over 60% of citizens identifying as Catholic in 2022, yet only a minority are practicing. While Catholic, Spain is highly secular, with a growing population of non-believers, agnostics, and atheists, especially among younger generations. Religious traditions remain strong culturally, but not necessarily in personal faith.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution. The Pew Research Center ranked Spain as the 16th out of 34 European countries in levels of religiosity, with 21% of the population declaring they were "highly religious" in the poll.
Spain is not a Muslim-majority country, but Islamic heritage and growing Muslim communities make it increasingly convenient to find mosques and prayer spaces — especially in major cities and historic regions like Andalusia.
The prevalence of the Church on the people and the subsequent end of the Spanish State caused the Spanish to detach themselves from Catholicism as political coercion was relaxed. In the 16 years after the transition from a dictatorship to democracy, there was a significant drop in levels of religious practice.
Church attendance among the surveyed countries in Europe is highest in Italy (23%) and Spain (18%) and lowest in Hungary (11%) and Belgium (9%). Data and graph: Ipsos Global Religion 2023 survey. But the generation gap between Boomers and Gen Zers is surprising.
The countries with the most people reporting no belief in any sort of spirit, god, or higher power are France (40%), Czech Republic (37%), Sweden (34%), Netherlands (30%), Estonia (29%), Germany (27%), Belgium (27%) and Slovenia (26%).
Spain's "empty" interior, known as España vacía, results from a combination of challenging geography (mountains, harsh climate) and historical/economic factors, causing mass rural-to-urban migration for better jobs, infrastructure, and services, leaving vast central areas with low population density while cities and coasts boom, exacerbated by low birth rates and lack of family support policies.
According to data from the World Population Review, Macau tops the list in 2025 with 59.3% of its population identifying as atheist. Close behind are South Korea (54.9%) and Hong Kong (52.3%), reflecting broader secular trends in parts of East Asia.
Islam was a major religion on the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and ending (at least overtly) with its prohibition by the modern Spanish state in the mid-16th century and the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century, an ethnic and religious minority of around ...
Yes, we are referring to big brands like MacDonalds, Burger King, KFC… In Spain, at the moment, they don't offer Halal meats. But you will find burgers and pizzerias with Muslim owners and halal foods.
Wearing the hijab, for example, is banned in some but not all Spanish schools, usually as part of wider ban on all student head coverings of any form on the grounds that students could conceal the use of earphones.
In late medieval Spain, Jews and Muslims both endured forced conversion and exile. In fact, the edict of 1492 later served as a model for regional charters expelling converted Muslims.
Donald Trump identifies as a Christian, specifically a Protestant, though he shifted from his upbringing as a Presbyterian to identifying as a nondenominational Christian, strongly supported by evangelical Christians, who see him as a champion for their faith, with strong ties to "positive thinking" and charismatic movements.
A 2023 Gallup International survey found that Sweden was the country with the highest percentage of citizens that stated they do not believe in a god. In 2020, the majority (78%) of the global nonreligious or unaffiliated demographic resided in Asia-Pacific.
The proportion of people identifying as religious declined from 68 % in 2005 to 56 % in 2024, reflecting a steady global trend toward secularization. Meanwhile, the share of those identifying as not religious increased from 21 % to 28 %, and convinced atheists rose from 6 % to 10 %.
In 2024, Spain ranked as both the 17th-largest exporter and the 17th-largest importer in the world. Furthermore, Spain is listed 28th in the United Nations Human Development Index and 30th in GDP per capita by the International Monetary Fund.
Rising temperatures, water scarcity and rising sea levels could radically transform the climate and geography of Spain in the coming decades. A report prepared by NASA identifies several regions of the country that could become virtually uninhabitable by 2050 due to these factors.
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.
