Roman Catholicism is the main religion in Argentina, with around 63 percent of the population identifying as Catholic on the 2019 CONICET national survey of religious beliefs. The Catholic share has fallen from 92 percent recorded in the early 1990s, while the unaffiliated category has climbed from under 4 percent to around 19 percent across the same window. The Catholic Church holds institutional weight as the home church of Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires in 1936 and elected to the papacy in March 2013.
The country also hosts the largest Jewish community in Latin America, a sizeable Muslim community concentrated around Buenos Aires, growing evangelical Protestant churches, and surviving indigenous spiritual traditions in the northwest, the Gran Chaco, and Patagonia. This article walks through each of these communities, the 1994 constitutional reform that redrew the legal status of the Catholic Church, and the popular devotions to figures such as Gauchito Gil and the Difunta Correa that run alongside the formal church.
Argentina Religious Demographics at a Glance
The national picture of religious affiliation in Argentina has shifted across the past three decades. The CONICET second national survey of creencias y actitudes religiosas, published in 2019, stands as the most thorough data point to date, and its headline figures look as follows:
- Roman Catholics: around 63 percent of the population
- No religious affiliation: around 19 percent
- Pentecostal and other evangelical Protestants: around 15 percent
- Other Christian traditions, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and indigenous communities: around 3 percent combined
The earlier CONICET survey of 2008 put Catholics at around 76 percent, and the 1960s national estimates ran above 90 percent. The unaffiliated category is the fastest-growing single block, with younger urban Argentines making up most of the increase. The figures cited in the sections below draw on the CONICET survey rounds, on the Argentine federal religion registry maintained by the Secretaria de Culto, and on community institutions such as AMIA and the Centro Islamico de la Republica Argentina. Our general country guide at facts and statistics for Argentina places these religious figures inside the wider demographic map of the country.
Catholicism and the 1994 Constitutional Reform
Roman Catholicism shaped Argentine public life from the colonial period through the second half of the twentieth century, and the colonial foundation of cities such as Cordoba, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires carried a parish and cathedral structure that followed the spread of the population across the viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. The 1853 constitution required the head of state to be a member of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, a clause that stood in place until the wider reform of August 1994 when the Justicialist and Radical parties under President Carlos Menem negotiated its removal alongside the introduction of direct presidential election and other changes. The state still recognises the Catholic Church through a 1966 concordat with the Holy See and provides direct funding to bishops and seminaries under that arrangement, although several Argentine governments since 2015 have debated ending the financial relationship.
Weekly Mass attendance sits at around 10 to 14 percent of the population on recent CONICET survey rounds, with much higher figures for occasional attendance at baptism, marriage, and funeral services. The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis on 13 March 2013 produced a surge in church-related public interest in Argentina, although the longer trend toward lower formal practice has continued through his pontificate. The fuller colonial and twentieth-century arc of the church in the country is traced in our religious history of Argentina.
Evangelical and Protestant Growth
Evangelical and Protestant communities have grown faster than any other religious group in Argentina across the past three decades. The CONICET 2019 round put the combined evangelical and historic Protestant share at around 15 percent of the population, with the strongest growth among Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal congregations in the urban working-class neighbourhoods of Greater Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Rosario, and the northern provinces of Chaco, Formosa, and Misiones. The older Protestant presence in Argentina runs through the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church among Volga German communities in Entre Rios and Buenos Aires province, the Methodist Church, and several Reformed and Mennonite congregations with nineteenth-century roots in European migration.
The Alianza Cristiana de Iglesias Evangelicas de la Republica Argentina, known by the initials ACIERA, serves as the largest umbrella body for evangelical congregations and negotiates with the national government on legal recognition and tax status. The Secretaria de Culto national religion registry records several thousand evangelical congregations across the country, with new registrations filed each year. The growth runs parallel to the decline in formal Catholic practice and has drawn academic and journalistic attention since the early 2000s, with researchers at CONICET and the Universidad de Buenos Aires publishing regular work on the social base of the Pentecostal churches.
Buenos Aires Jewish Community and AMIA
Argentina holds the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with community institutions estimating a population of around 230,000 to 250,000 people, the great majority living in Buenos Aires. The community grew through several migration waves starting in the late nineteenth century, including Sephardic Jews arriving from Morocco and the Ottoman lands from the 1880s onward and a larger Ashkenazi migration from Russia, Poland, Romania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the period before and after the First World War. The Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina, known by the initials AMIA, was founded in 1894 and remains the central institution of Argentine Jewish life, running burial societies, welfare programmes, cultural centres, and a historical archive on the community.
Its building in the Once neighbourhood of Buenos Aires was destroyed in the bombing of 18 July 1994 that killed 85 people and injured hundreds more, the deadliest single attack of its kind in Argentine history. The annual commemoration on 18 July remains a significant date in the country’s public life. Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, and Chabad-Lubavitch congregations all operate in Buenos Aires, and the community runs schools, youth organisations, and the Hebraica Argentina sports and cultural club in the Once and Villa Crespo neighbourhoods.
The Argentine Muslim Community
The Muslim community of Argentina numbers around 400,000 to 700,000 according to community sources, although the Secretaria de Culto registry lists a smaller figure and the Argentine national census has never included a religion question in a form that captures Islam with precision. Most members descend from late nineteenth and early twentieth century migrants from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, many of whom arrived under Ottoman passports during the final decades of the empire and are still described in Argentine Spanish as turcos regardless of actual origin. The King Fahd Islamic Cultural Center in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, opened in the year 2000 on land donated by the city government during the presidency of Carlos Menem, ranks among the largest mosques in Latin America and houses a library, classrooms, and a dedicated prayer hall.
The Centro Islamico de la Republica Argentina, founded in 1931, serves as the oldest Muslim institution in the country and maintains the historic mosque on Avenida San Juan in the San Cristobal neighbourhood. Several smaller Shia and Sunni congregations operate in Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza, and in the northwestern provinces where earlier Syrian-Lebanese migration left a sustained community presence.
Indigenous Spirituality and the Andean Pachamama
Indigenous spiritual traditions have survived in Argentina in the communities of the northwest, the Gran Chaco, the northeast, and Patagonia, often alongside Catholic practice rather than in full opposition to it. The Mapuche communities of the Patagonian provinces of Neuquen, Rio Negro, and Chubut maintain the ngillatun ceremony and its associated cosmology. The Wichi, Toba, and Pilaga peoples of the Gran Chaco in Chaco and Formosa provinces carry their own ritual and healing traditions.
The Guarani communities of Misiones province in the northeast preserve the nhemonguetara religious practice, and the Quechua and Aymara communities of Jujuy and Salta in the northwest continue the Andean Pachamama or Mother Earth devotion. The Pachamama ceremonies of early August in the northwestern highlands blend with Catholic festivals and the parish calendar, with offerings of food, coca leaves, and aguardiente poured into an open hole in the earth during the opening days of the month. The Argentine national census began collecting self-identification data on indigenous ancestry in 2001, and the 2022 round counted around 1.3 million Argentines who identify as indigenous across dozens of recognised peoples.
Popular Devotions: Gauchito Gil and Difunta Correa
Popular religious devotion to unofficial saints runs alongside the formal Catholic church across much of Argentina and draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. The Gauchito Gil devotion centres on Antonio Mamerto Gil Nunez, a folk figure venerated in Corrientes province in the northeast whose shrine at Mercedes draws around half a million pilgrims on 8 January each year, the anniversary of his execution in the 1870s according to the legend. Red ribbons tied to trees and roadside shrines across the country mark the reach of the devotion, which the official church has discouraged without much effect on the numbers.
The Difunta Correa devotion centres on Deolinda Correa, a woman who according to legend died of thirst in the deserts of San Juan province during the civil wars of the 1840s while her infant son survived nursing from her. Pilgrims visit the Vallecito shrine year-round and leave offerings of water bottles, scale models of houses, cars, and tools, and photographs of loved ones. CONICET survey work shows that around eight in ten Argentines believe in some form of divine healing or miraculous intervention regardless of formal religious affiliation, which places the popular saints at the centre of Argentine religious life rather than at its margins. For the wider context of these practices see our guide to culture and customs in Argentina.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main religion in Argentina?
The main religion in Argentina is Roman Catholicism, with around 63 percent of the population identifying as Catholic on the CONICET 2019 national survey of religious beliefs. The Catholic share has fallen from 92 percent in the early 1990s and from 76 percent in the 2008 survey round, and the unaffiliated category has climbed from under 4 percent to around 19 percent across the same period.
What percentage of Argentina is Catholic?
Around 63 percent of the Argentine population identified as Roman Catholic on the CONICET 2019 national religion survey. Weekly Mass attendance sits closer to 10 to 14 percent, and much larger numbers attend the church for baptism, marriage, and funeral services without regular weekly practice.
What religions are practised in Argentina?
Roman Catholicism is the largest religion in Argentina, followed by Pentecostal and other evangelical Protestant churches at around 15 percent, historic Protestant traditions including Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist congregations, a Jewish community of around 230,000 to 250,000 members, a Muslim community of around 400,000 to 700,000 depending on the source, and indigenous spiritual traditions maintained by Mapuche, Wichi, Toba, Guarani, Quechua, and Aymara communities. Around 19 percent of Argentines report no religious affiliation on the 2019 CONICET survey.
Is Argentina still officially a Catholic country?
Argentina has not required the head of state to be Roman Catholic since the constitutional reform of August 1994, and the state is not formally Catholic. The government still recognises the Catholic Church through a 1966 concordat with the Holy See and provides direct funding to bishops and seminaries under that arrangement, although the financial relationship has been debated in Congress during several recent legislative periods.
How large is the Jewish community in Argentina?
The Argentine Jewish community numbers around 230,000 to 250,000 people according to community estimates, the largest in Latin America. The great majority live in Buenos Aires, and the central institution of the community is the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina, founded in 1894 and known by the initials AMIA.
What is the Gauchito Gil devotion?
The Gauchito Gil is a popular saint figure venerated across Argentina, centred on Antonio Mamerto Gil Nunez, a folk figure from Corrientes province in the northeast. Pilgrims gather at the Mercedes shrine on 8 January each year, the anniversary of his execution in the 1870s according to the legend, and red ribbons tied to trees and roadside shrines across the country mark the reach of the devotion.
Sources and Further Reading
- CONICET, Segunda Encuesta Nacional sobre Creencias y Actitudes Religiosas en Argentina, 2019, conicet.gov.ar
- Secretaria de Culto, Registro Nacional de Cultos, argentina.gob.ar/culto
- Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina, institutional site, amia.org.ar
- Centro Islamico de la Republica Argentina, ccira.com.ar
- Fortunato Mallimaci, El mito de la Argentina laica: Catolicismo, politica y Estado, Capital Intelectual, Buenos Aires, 2015
- Pew Research Center, Religion in Latin America: Widespread Change in a Historically Catholic Region, Washington, 2014, pewresearch.org
