Are there more mosques than churches in Catalonia?

Claims on social media allege that the autonomous community of Catalonia in northeastern Spain is now home to more mosques than churches.

A picture, which appears in posts on X and Instagram, among others, also says that 120 Catalan schools “teach Islam”.

The Catalan government’s website features an official Religious Map of the region, which tracks established places of worship across various religions that hold services at least once a year.

As of 2024, the most recent dataset, the Catalan government counts 7,260 places of worship throughout its territory, corresponding to 14 main religious denominations and some smaller denominations grouped into the “Other” category.

The data show that Catholic churches are by far the most common type of religious centre in Catalonia, accounting for 5,665, or 78% of the total. However, these are declining due to the ageing population and certain parishes joining forces.

Evangelical or protestant churches come in second place with 889 places of worship. The government notes that this is the denomination which has grown the most by places of worship since it started tracking the data.

Islam, including mosques, is in third place with 326 religious centres, meaning that, no, there aren’t more mosques than churches in Catalonia, and the social media posts claiming the contrary appear to want to spread an Islamophobic narrative.

The Catalan government does, however, also note a “sustained growth” in Islam since the 1970s based on the number of places of worship.

The social media posts sharing the image suggest that the claims originate from Spanish news outlet EDATV News, which describes itself as an independent media outlet pushing back against “political correctness, ideological censorship and cancel culture”.

However, the exact claim about mosques and churches doesn’t quite appear in any of its articles. Instead, a search of its website takes us to an article about the supposed “Islamisation” of Catalonia.

It contains a similar quote attributed to Júlia Calvet, a politician from the far-right Vox party. She says that there are Catalan municipalities with more mosques than churches, such as the municipality of Salt in the province of Girona.

Referring back to the official government figures, while Salt does have more mosques than Catholic churches, combining churches from different denominations puts churches on top again.

Calvet also reportedly refers to some 120 schools teaching students an Arabic language and Moroccan culture course, which alludes back to the “120 schools teaching Islam” claim in the social media picture.

The programme does exist as per an agreement between Spain and Morocco. It aims to teach Arabic and Moroccan culture to both Moroccan and non-Moroccan primary and secondary school pupils in Spain.

It’s coordinated by the Moroccan embassy in Spain and the Spanish education ministry, and managed by the autonomous communities, according to the agreement. The programme is taught by Moroccan civil service teachers.

The agreement underlines that the programme will teach Moroccan students to safeguard their identity while also respecting Spanish culture, encouraging tolerance and participation in Spanish society.

The Spanish news agency Europa Press reported earlier this year that 120 public education centres in Catalonia would teach the course between 2024 and 2025, citing government figures.

However, this is a language and culture class, not an “Islam” class as the social media posts claim.

What about Spain in general?

The numbers for the whole of Spain tell a similar story when it comes to centres of worship.

Research published by the Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain in October 2024 puts the total number of places of worship in the country at 30,949.

Catholic churches account for 22,933 of them, or 74% of the total number, with evangelical churches coming in at 4,455 and 1,839 for Islam.

Catalonia is the autonomous community with the most places of worship in the country, followed by Andalusia and then Madrid.