Young Spaniards continue to be the age group with the highest proportion of people who declare themselves non-religious, but among those who maintain their Catholic identity a different trend appears: 34.6% of Catholics aged 18 to 24 consider themselves practicing, a percentage higher than that recorded in several adult generations.
The data appears in Laicidad en cifras. Análisis 2026, prepared by the Fundación Ferrer i Guàrdia based, among other sources, on the barometers of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS). The organization, which expressly promotes secularism and the effective separation between public institutions and religious denominations, acknowledges in the report itself that «religious practice is rebounding among younger people».
34.6% of young Catholics declare themselves practicing
The difference is especially visible when comparing the youngest generations. Among Catholics aged 18 to 24, 34.6% declare themselves practicing, while among those aged 25 to 34 the figure drops to 24.1%.
The percentage of those under 25 also exceeds that of Catholics aged 35 to 44 (25.2%), 45 to 54 (27%) and 55 to 64 (28.5%). Practice clearly rises again from age 65 onward and reaches 53.1% among those over 75. The data correspond to the average of the CIS barometers conducted between January and December 2025.
The report itself considers the behavior of the youngest generation significant and notes that the rebound «breaks the idea of a strictly decreasing evolution of practice among the youngest generations». The authors interpret that there is not a general increase in youth religiosity, but rather a greater intensity of practice among those who continue to declare themselves religious.
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Non-religiosity declines among those under 25 since 2021
The rebound in practice coexists with a different reality across the generation as a whole. Young people aged 18 to 24 remain the least religious group in Spain: 55.4% declare themselves non-religious, compared with 53.7% of those aged 25 to 34. From age 45 onward, however, the religious population once again becomes the majority.
The evolution of recent years introduces, however, another nuance. The proportion of young people aged 18 to 24 who declare themselves non-religious reached 60.9% in 2021 and has since declined progressively to 55.4% in 2025. The Foundation itself speaks of a «slightly downward trend» and a «slight retreat» of non-religiosity in this age bracket.
The evolution is not reproduced in the same way among the other generations. The study indicates that among those aged 25 to 44 non-religiosity has remained relatively stable and considers that the decline observed among those under 25 responds, for now, to a specific dynamic of that cohort, without it being possible to speak of a general reversal of secularization.
Young men equal women in religious practice
The report also records a particularity within the youngest generation. In Spain, women generally show higher levels of religious practice than men, a difference that becomes more pronounced as age increases.
Among Catholics aged 18 to 24, however, the gap practically disappears. 34.8% of men declare themselves practicing, compared with 34.5% of women. It is the only age group analyzed in which male practice exceeds, albeit by three-tenths, that of women.
Spain remains predominantly religious
The youth data appear within an overall scenario of secularization. In 2025, 55.1% of Spaniards declared themselves Catholic, while 3.5% identified with other religions. Atheists, agnostics, indifferent and non-believers together accounted for around 39% of the population.
Taken together, 58.6% of Spaniards identify with some religious option and 39.3% with non-religious options, while 2% do not take a position. The report itself thus acknowledges that the religious population continues to be the majority in Spain.
Practice, however, is a minority within the Catholic population as a whole: in 2025, 33.5% declared themselves practicing and 66.5% non-practicing. At the beginning of the century the relationship was very different, as 59% of religious people declared themselves practicing.
A foundation that expressly promotes secularism
Laicidad en cifras 2026 was prepared by Josep Mañé and Joan Gorina of the Fundación Ferrer i Guàrdia, using official data from the CIS, the National Institute of Statistics, the Ministry of Education and the Tax Agency, among other sources.
The orientation of the organization is part of the study’s own approach. The Foundation declares its commitment to «the promotion of secularism as a fundamental democratic principle» and calls for neutral public institutions and an «effective separation» between them and religious denominations. The report analyzes from this perspective issues such as the financing of the Catholic Church, confessional charter schools and the teaching of Religion.
In the educational sphere, for example, it notes that 18.1% of all Spanish students attend confessional charter schools, while 43.6% of Primary students, 48.2% of ESO students and nearly seven out of ten Bachillerato students do not take Religion.
The 2025 data thus keep young people as the least religious generation in Spain, but at the same time show two movements within the 18-to-24 age bracket: non-religiosity has declined since the peak recorded in 2021 and, among those who continue to be Catholic, practice reaches levels higher than those of several adult generations.