Poll finds more atheists than practising Catholics in Spain

Public insults and attacks on religion have also increased by 26 per cent since last year, with more than half involving anti-Catholicism.

More Spaniards identify as atheists than as practising Catholics, according to a new poll.

Just over 17 per cent of the 4,042 individuals questioned on their religious identity by Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) declared they were atheist and 15.9 per cent identified as practising Catholics, while 38.5 per cent said they were non-practising Catholics.

In 2019, 23 per cent of those surveyed identified as practising Catholics, and 11 per cent as atheists. In 2023, 16.8 per cent said they were practising Catholics and the same number self-identified as atheists.

“One has to be careful with month-by-month variations which can be sensitive to the sample [questioned],” said Hungria Panadero, the director of the Fundació Ferrer i Guàrdia which produces an annual report on religiosity.

Meanwhile, public insults and attacks on religion in Spain have increased by 26 per cent since last year, with more than half involving anti-Catholicism, according to the Observatory for Religious Liberty and Conscience (ORLC).

Its president Marta García said this was the highest level of recorded attacks since 2012, the first year the ORLC began to issue reports based on media accounts of sessions in Spain’s Congress, Senate and federal parliaments.

The Spanish penal code includes a clause that criminalises attacking, offending, insulting or ridiculing the religious sentiments of a group or an individual.

The ORLC’s annual report for 2024 recorded 243 attacks, compared to 306 in 2025. Of these, 56.5 per cent were anti-Catholic.  A further 33 incidents involving other Christian denominations were also reported, raising the number of anti-Christian attacks to 212 (69 per cent of the total). Most incidents involved “belligerent secularism” and ridiculing religion.

The report also recorded 40 attacks against Jews, representing 13 per cent of all incidents. García said this figure had increased by 38 per cent in the past year, a fact “especially serious” given that Spain’s Jewish community accounts for less than 0.1 per cent of the total population.

There were 26 attacks against Muslims – a 136 per cent increase since 2024, when 11 incidents were reported. Attacks on Jehovah’s Witnesses have decreased, however, by 31 per cent. Furthermore, 73 attacks on places of worship and religious symbols were recorded in 2025, a 59 per cent increase compared to 2024. 

Ana Blanco, vice-president of the ORLC, said that the cases of public ridicule of religion were often presented as “artistic freedom” but in practice became “a systematic method of [anti-religious] jibes” in the press. She referred to five incidents on the state broadcaster RTVE including a New Year programme mocking the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

García blamed the increase on a “radicalisation” in political discourse. She said “year after year” the government parties were largely responsible for this. The report  pointed out that nearly one in every three attacks come from politicians or political groups. The largest number originated with the governing PSOE, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.

The ORLC appealed to the government and legislators to protect religious symbol and places of worship and retain the law against offending religious sentiment. They also called for the right to pray in public to be respected.

Pope Leo’s stark message to Spanish Catholics and the Church in Europe

A divided Spain awaits Leo

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: