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Sources of data

Sources of data

Data on religious affiliation are not collected through the census or any other form of official registration. Therefore, data on religious affiliation and the religious diversity of the country is available through two main sources: surveys and registers of places of worship. These are collected both centrally for the whole of Spain as well as by the Government of Catalonia.

 Nationally, the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), an autonomous public institution part of the Ministry of Presidency that collects statistical information about Spanish society, mostly through surveys. In its monthly Barometer, the CIS often collects information on religious self-identification as well as frequency of attendance to religious services. Occasionally, other questions related to religion are added to the survey.

 Data on places of worship: the Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain publishes a “Directory of Places of Worship”, a tool for the visibility and the quantitative analysis of religious diversity in Spain. Its data comes from three sources: the Register of Religious Entities, research promoted by the Foundation for Pluralism and Coexistence, and requests for data incorporation made by the religious communities themselves. The website is updated frequently.

 At the Catalan level, the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió and the General Directorate for Religious Affairs, both institutions of the Catalan Government, produce the Barometer on religiosity and the management of its diversity. The first round was done in 2020 and the second round took place in 2023.
The Catalan Religious Map: The Religious Map of Catalonia is a project promoted and funded by the General Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Government of Catalonia, with the aim of identifying and understanding minority religious communities and places of worship of all faiths present in Catalonia. The initiative began in 2001 when the ISOR research group - (Research in Sociology of Religion from the Autonomous University of Barcelona) was commissioned to design a map of religious minorities. Since then, various updates have been carried out to obtain information on all places of worship that are active in Catalonia. The periodic updates also allow for the analysis of the evolution and changes over the years.

D 8 December 2023    AJulia Martínez-Ariño ARosa Martínez-Cuadros

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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