08 June 2021
Bilbao Campus
The Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute has collaborated, together with the Basque Immigration Observatory-Ikuspegi, in drawing up the map of religious diversity in the Basque Country. This work is a continuation of the map of minority religions in the Basque Country published by this Deusto centre in 2011 and that included, for the first time, data on the different minority religions established in the Basque Country. The new interactive map, promoted by the Basque Government's Human Rights Department, includes information on the number of faiths and followers as well as places of worship and temples.
According to this report, Catholicism is the main religion, with 1,489,864 followers, followed by Muslims (89,487), Evangelicals (29,326) and Orthodox (18,964) some way behind. Assuming that there is a Catholic majority in the three regions, some sectoral data stand out, such as the fact that those who practise the Islamic religion have a greater presence in Vitoria-Gasteiz (14,114) with a dozen mosques, ahead of Bilbao (13,131) and its six mosques, or San Sebastian (5,540) and no temple of this religion.
As far as evangelicals are concerned, Biscay is clearly their benchmark region. There are 4,095 followers in Bilbao, 2,969 in Vitoria-Gasteiz and 2,885 in San Sebastian. In terms of temples, this religion has, second to Catholic churches, the largest number of places of worship with almost 120 in the Basque Country, including 35 in Bilbao and 19 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. San Sebastian only has 7 centres, one less than Bermeo and two less than Santurtzi, Getxo and Barakaldo.
There are no synagogues or Hindu temples. There are five Buddhist temples in San Sebastian, ahead of Bilbao (4) and Vitoria-Gasteiz (1).
Religious diversity is now an unquestionable reality in the Basque Country. The map shows that the second trend in terms of beliefs in the Basque Country - once again behind Catholics - is precisely not professing any religion. In fact, 515,771 people declare themselves to be non-believers.
Link to religious diversity map: https://labur.eus/ui2IX
