Christianity is the most widely professed religion in Spain, with Catholicism being its main denomination, along with high levels of secularization .
Spain is a secular state and freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution. Immigration over the past several decades has brought a diverse plethora of faiths from around the world to the country.
Overview 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. 3% of Spaniards consider religion as one of their three most important values, lower than the 5% European average.
According to the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS), 54.3% of Spanish citizens self-identify as Catholics (36.3% define themselves as non-practicing, while 18% as practicing), 3% as followers of other faiths (including Islam, Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism etc.), and 41% as non-believer, these being: atheists (17%), indifferent or no religion (11.1%), or agnostics (13%), as of April 2026., 4,020 respondents. The question was .
Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in weekly religious worship. An April 2026 study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 25.8% never attend Mass, 22.7% barely ever attend Mass, 23.5% attend Mass a few times a year, 10% two or three times per month, 12.1% every Sunday and holidays, and 4.5% multiple times per week.
Although a majority of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, younger generations tend to ignore the Church's moral doctrines on issues such as pre-marital sex, homosexuality, same-sex 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, many expressions of popular religiosity still thrive, often linked to local festivals. Several instances of Catholic cultural practices are present among the general population, such as Catholic baptisms and funerals, Holy Week processions, pilgrimages (such as the Way of St. James), patron saints and many festivals.
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 of Jews. Only 1% of Spaniards are Protestant and most Protestants have an immigrant background.
The patron saint of Spain is St. James the Greater.St. James the Greater in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Appleton Company, 1910), https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08279b.htm
History Spain, it has been observed, is a nation-state born out of religious struggle mainly between Catholicism and Islam, but also against Judaism (and, to a lesser extent, Protestantism). The Reconquista against Al Andalus (ending in 1492), the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition (1478) and the expulsion of Jews (1492) were highly relevant in the union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Fernando (1492), followed by the persecution and eventual expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. The Counter-Reformation (1563–1648) was especially strong in Spain and the Inquisition was not definitively abolished until 1834, thus continuing their animosity towards Islam, Judaism, Protestantism and parts of the Enlightenment for most of its history.
Judaism and Christianity were introduced in the Iberian Peninsula in Roman times, with the latter absorbing many elements from "pagan" practices that survived for a while even among Christianized populations. Islam was introduced in the Iberian Peninsula after the Muslim conquest in the 8th century, which resulted in the establishment of Al-Andalus. In the late 15th to early 16th century, Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion or expulsion, with the fostering of Catholic uniformity across the territory remaining a major concern for both State and Church authorities throughout the two following centuries.
Connected to the Old Regime, the Catholic Church became the most controversial institution in Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries, struggling to find ways to relate to the nascent liberal society as well as clashing with governments seeking to find an acceptable delimitation of the role of religion in public affairs. Since the end of the Francoist dictatorship practical secularization has grown strongly. The 1978 Constitution abolished Catholicism as the official religion of the state, while recognizing "the religious beliefs of all Spaniards" and establishing "appropriate cooperation" with the Catholic Church and other confessions.
Antiquity and late Antiquity
Before Christianity, there were multiple beliefs in the Iberian Peninsula including local Iberian, Celtiberian and Celtic religions, as well as the Greco-Roman religion.
According to a medieval legend, the apostle James was the first to spread Christianity in the Roman Iberian Peninsula. He later became the patron saint of Spaniards and Portuguese, originating the Way of St James. According to Romans 15, Paul the Apostle also intended to visit Hispania; tradition has that he did and founded the Diocese of Écija. Other later myths include the Seven Apostolic Men.
There is some archaeological evidence of Christianity slowly penetrating the Peninsula from Rome and Roman Mauretania via major cities and ports, especially Tarragona, since the early 2nd century. The Paleo-Christian Necropolis of Tarragona, with 2,050 discovered tombs, dates back to the second half of the 3rd century. Saints like Eulalia of Mérida or Barcelona and many others are believed to have been martyred during the Decian or Diocletianic Persecutions (3rd–early 4th centuries). Bishops like Basílides of Astorga, Marcial of Mérida or the influential Hosius of Corduba were active in the same period.
Theodosius I issued decrees that effectively made Nicene Christianity the official state church of the Roman Empire.Cf. decree, infra."Edict of Thessalonica": See Codex Theodosianus XVI.1.2 This Christianity was already an early form of Catholicism.
As Rome declined, Germanic tribes invaded most of the lands of the former empire. In the years following 410 the Visigoths—who had converted to Arian Christianity around 360—occupied what is now Spain and Portugal. The Visigothic Kingdom established its capital in Toledo; it reached its high point during the reign of Leovigild (568–586). Visigothic rule led to a brief expansion of Arianism in Spain, however the native population remained staunchly Catholic. In 587 Reccared, the Visigothic king at Toledo, converted to Catholicism and launched a movement to unify doctrine. The Council of Lerida in 546 constrained the clergy and extended the power of law over them under the blessings of Rome. The multiple Councils of Toledo definitively established what would be later known as the Catholic Church in Spain and contributed to define Catholicism elsewhere.
Middle Ages
By the early 8th century, the Visigothic kingdom had fragmented and the fragments were in disarray, bankrupt and willing to accept external help to fight each other. In 711 an Arab raiding party led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, then defeated the Visigothic king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete. Tariq's commander, Musa bin Nusair, then landed with substantial reinforcements. Taking advantage of the Visigoths' infighting, by 718 the Muslims dominated most of the peninsula, establishing Islamic rule until 1492.
During this period the number of Muslims increased greatly through the migration of Arabs and Berbers, and the conversion of local Christians to Islam (known as Muladis or Muwalladun) with the latter forming the majority of the Islamic-ruled area by the end of the 10th century. Most Christians who remained adopted Arabic culture, and these Arabized Christians became known as Mozarabs.
The era of Muslim rule before 1055 is often considered a "Golden Age" for the Jews as Jewish intellectual and spiritual life flourished in Spain. Only in the northern fringes of the peninsula did Christians remain under Christian rule. Here they established the great pilgrimage centre of Santiago de Compostela.
In 1147, following the Almohads takeover of the bulk of Al-Andalus, Christians living in Muslim-ruled territory faced harsher treatment. Faced with the choice of death, conversion, or emigration, many Jews and Christians emigrated.The Almohads
The Catholic Monarchs established the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (also known as the Spanish Inquisition) in 1478. An ethno-religious cleansing of Jews, Muslims, and former Muslims took place in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th to early 17th centuries under the purview of a series of royal decrees.
Modern period In the early modern Period, the Crown saw itself as the bulwark of Catholicism and doctrinal purity. Catholicism was introduced in the New World and the Philippines under Spanish colonialism, but the monarchs insisted on independence from papal "interference". Bishops were forbidden to report to the Pope except through the Crown. In 1767, under the Bourbon dynasty, the Crown banished the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire. The Inquisition was ended for good in 1848. Religious freedom continued to be denied in practice, if not in theory.
Concordat of 1851 Catholicism became the state religion in 1851, when the Spanish government signed a Concordat with the Holy See that committed Madrid to pay the salaries of the clergy and to subsidize other expenses of the Roman Catholic Church as a compensation for the seizure of church property in the Desamortización de Mendizábal of 1835–1837. This pact was renounced in 1931, when the secular constitution of the Second Spanish Republic imposed a series of secularist measures that threatened the Church's hegemony in Spain, provoking the Church's support for the Francisco Franco uprising five years later.Text used in this cited section originally came from: Spain Country Study from the Library of Congress Country Studies project. In the ensuing Spanish Civil War, alleged communists and anarchists in Republican areas killed about 7,000 priests, the majority murdered between July and December 1936. Over four thousand were diocesan priests, as well as 13 bishops, and 2,365 male regulars or religious priests.Michael Burleigh, Sacred Causes (New York: Harper Collins, 2007) 132.Jose M. Sanchez, The Spanish Civil War as a Religious Tragedy (South Bend: Notre Dame Press, 1987) 9.Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, (London 3rd edition, 1990) 271. On the other hand, the small Protestant minority was harshly persecuted by the "national" side, most churches were closed and many priests and religious figures were jailed or killed.Velasco, M. (2012). Los otros mártires: las religiones minoritarias en España desde la Segunda República a nuestros días. Foca.Vilar, J. B. (2001). Los protestantes españoles: la doble lucha por la libertad durante el primer franquismo (1939-1953). In Anales de Historia contemporánea (Vol. 17, pp. 253-300).
Second Spanish Republic
On 9 December 1931, the Spanish Constitution of 1931 established a secular state and freedom of religion in the Second Spanish Republic. It would remain in effect until 1 April 1939.
Francoist Spain
The advent of the Francoist dictatorship saw the restoration of the church's privileges, pursuant to the ideological tenets of National Catholicism. While in agreement with the Catholic doctrine in regards of the opposition to sterilization and euthanasia, the regime, imbued of a "deeply Catholic" approach, advocated for "environmental eugenics" instead, enforcing coercive measures justifying the repression, segregation and elimination of its political enemies, otherwise overlapping with a racial discourse that identified the decline of the Spanish race with republican policies and ideology.