Islam in Spain

Islam in Spain
Regions with significant populations
In absolute frequencies: Catalonia, Andalusia, Community of Madrid, Valencian Community, Region of Murcia
Religions
Majority Sunni, minority Shia
Languages
Main: Spanish, Arabic, Berber and others
Islam in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
  90–100%
  70–90%
  50–70%
Bosnia and Herzegovina
  30–40%
North Macedonia
  10–20%
  5–10%
  4–5%
  2–4%
  1–2%
  < 1%

Spain is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority religion, practised mostly by immigrants from Muslim majority countries.

Islam was a major religion on the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania 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 500,000 people.[2] Although a significant proportion of the Moriscos returned to Spain, or avoided expulsion, the practice of Islam had faded into obscurity by the 19th century[3] after many years of crypto-Muslims practicing their faith in secret.[citation needed]

While the 2022 official estimation of Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) indicates that 2.8% of the population of Spain has a religion other than Catholicism,[4] according to an unofficial estimation of 2020 by the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE) the Muslim population in Spain represents the 4.45% of the total Spanish population as of 2019, of whom 42% were Spanish citizens (most of them with foreign family origins), 38% Moroccans, and 20% of other nationalities.[5]

  1. ^ "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pew Research Center. 12 April 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  2. ^ Dadson, Trevor J. (15 October 2018). "Tolerance and Coexistence in Early Modern Spain: Old Christians and Moriscos in the Campo de Calatrava". Boydell & Brewer Ltd – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vinculos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ CIS."Barómetro de Enero de 2022", 3,777 respondents. The question was "¿Cómo se define Ud. en materia religiosa: católico/a practicante, católico/a no practicante, creyente de otra religión, agnóstico/a, indiferente o no creyente, o ateo/a?".
  5. ^ "Estudio demográfico de la población musulmana Explotación estadística del censo de ciudadanos musulmanes en España referido a fecha 31/12/2019" (PDF). Unión de Comunidades Islámicas de España. Observatorio Andalusí: 14. 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.