Radiography of Religious Minorities in Spain: an Estimation of their Size and Characteristics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54790/rccs.114

Keywords:

religion, minorities, confessions, religious beliefs, methodology, inmigration, statistical sources, quantification, Muslims, Catholics

Abstract

This article studies religious minorities through six opinion surveys carried out in the period 2018-2023, and discusses the limitations of these sources to analyse such a specific group. According to these surveys, between 4% and 6.3% of Spanish residents of legal age belong to a non-Catholic religion. On the other hand, the calculations estimated in this research, based on the LFS, suggest that the real percentage is twice as high. When minors are also included, the figure reaches 14% of the population in our country in 2024 (6.8 million people), of which 2.4 million are Muslim. Religious minorities are mostly made up of immigrants, are younger than the average population, have a lower proportion of university graduates, are slightly further to the right politically and practice their religiosity more intensely than Catholics.

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Author Biographies

Jacobo Muñoz Comet, National University of Distance Education

Doctor en Sociología con mención europea por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), licenciado en Sociología (UNED) y licenciado en Periodismo (UCM). Ha sido investigador visitante en la Universidad Libre de Ámsterdam (VU), Universidad de Mannheim, Universidad de Oxford y Universidad de Ámsterdam (UvA). Su investigación centrada en la inmigración, la desigualdad social y el mercado laboral ha sido publicada en revistas internacionales como European Sociological Review, Work, Employment & Society, International Migration Review, y Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Juan Ignacio Martínez Pastor, National University of Distance Education

Doctor en Sociología por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Ha sido Director del Departamento de Investigación del Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) y Vicedecano de Investigación de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología de la UNED. Analiza el mercado laboral, la estratificación social, la nupcialidad, el divorcio, el capital erótico y el modo en el que se interpretan y difunden las estadísticas sociales. Sus trabajos han sido publicados en revistas internacionales como European Sociological Review, Demographic Research, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, y Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

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Published

2025-07-02

How to Cite

Muñoz Comet, J., & Martínez Pastor, J. I. (2025). Radiography of Religious Minorities in Spain: an Estimation of their Size and Characteristics. CENTRA Journal of Social Sciences, 4(2), 11–34. https://doi.org/10.54790/rccs.114

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