Catholicism stopped representing 90% of Argentines. Today he calls 57.7% of the population, according to the Barometer of Religions and Beliefs in Argentina, a survey carried out between February and March 2026 by the Observatory of Beliefs of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) with a national sample of people over 16 years of age and a confidence level greater than 95%. The CONICET researcher Juan Cruz Esquivelin charge of the study, warned that the declining trend dates back to the 20th century: in 1960, the last census that recorded the religious variable, 90% of Argentines identified with that faith.
The second group is no longer any of the religions that historically disputed that space. They are the no religious affiliation: people who consider themselves believers and have spiritual practices but who, when asked, respond that their religion is “none”, with the 22.4%. Below, the data reveals a striking reversal: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the umbanda each one reaches the 0.5% of the population, while the Islam arrives at 0.3% and the jewish community to the 0.2%. In terms of declared adherence, minorities of heterodox Christian origin and Afro-Brazilian religions surpass the two traditions that historically defined the debate on religious diversity in Argentina.
Generational change explains a good part of the phenomenon. Among the young people of 16 to 29 yearsonly the 44.6% He declares himself Catholic and 31% He does not subscribe to any religion. At the opposite end, between the over 50 Catholicism maintains the 69% and only 12.6% say they have no religion. The map also shows differences by gender: 19.3% of women identifies with the evangelical world—which represents the 17.4% of the total—, against 15.2% of men, while they are more likely to declare themselves without affiliation (25.7% compared to 18.8% female).
The educational level operates as another variable. Among those with less education, the 22.5% It is linked to evangelical communities, which fulfill functions of social support. At the medium and high levels the group without religion grows. Territorially, the interior preserves Catholicism with the 59.4%while the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area leads secularization: there the 26.1% He has no religious affiliation. The report concludes that segmentation will continue to deepen and that individual spirituality, detached from formal institutions, is already an irreversible trend.
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