Spanish evangelicals opened 16 new worship places every month in 2018

Evangelicals opened 16 new places of worship every month in Spain in 2018, according to the latest annual report of the national Observatory of Religious Pluralism.

The official figures of this agency of the Spanish Ministry of Justice shows that there were 4,238 evangelical places of worship in December 2018, an increase of 197 new places compared to those registered in December 2017.

The government's statistics include Adventists and Anglicans under the category of evangelicalism, but the largest evangelicals denominations in Spain are Assemblies of God, Baptists, Brethren and independent churches.

The figures confirm the positive trend of growth of the last years.

The Roman Catholic Church still owns most worship places in Spain - 23,019.

EVANGELICALS, THE FAITH MINORITY WITH MOST PLACES OF WORSHIP

Evangelicals represent the biggest percentage of temples among minority fatih groups: 58.5%.

Muslims follow, with 22.5% and a total of 1,632 places of worship; Jehovah's Witnesses, with 627 spaces, 8.27%; and the Orthodox, with 216 temples, 3%.

With fewer worship places are Buddhists (171), Mormons (115), Jews (39), Baha'is (45), Hinduists (25) and Sikhs (22).

CATALONIA, ANDALUSIA, MADRID

The December report showed statistics by regions, offering a comparison with the 2013 data.

In these five years, the places of worship of religious minorities have increased in all the Autonomous Communities (the 17 regions of Spain).

Catalonia -where there are already about 1,500 temples- Andalusia -1,131 places of worship- and Madrid -1,020- are the regions where there are most evangelical church buildings.

The regions where fewer new openings of places of worship have occurred are Melilla -29 compared to 28 in 2013-, Asturias -just two new places of worship in the last five years, with a total of 82- and Cantabria with 52 places of worship, only 7 more than in 2013.