The Importance of Religion in the Spanish Society

The CIS’s study of January 2002 also tried to define the Spaniards opinion on the position of religion in the society of yesterday, today and tomorrow; 72.5% of people interviewed consider that religion today has less of an influence than it did ten years ago, while 64.9% of individuals say that religion will have less of an influence in the future than it does today.
When asked whether religious authorities should have an influence on government actions or not, 81.1% said no. These affirmations coincide with the religious neutrality of the Spanish State and mark a break with the characteristic situation of Franco’s regime, which was marked by a close interweaving of religion and the State.
One of the questions in the above-mentioned study refers to the importance of religion in the lives of Spaniards. Health was number one on their list, with a rating of 9.71 on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, family was next on the list with a rating of 9.62, followed by work with 8.53. The least important aspects were religion (5.34) and politics (3.69).