Religion in El Salvador

Religious affiliation

There is some debate about percentages, the Institute of Public Opinion of the University of Central America in May 2013 found 51% of the population as Roman Catholics, and 33% as Protestant, 14% as not having a religion and the remainder (less than 2%) being Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and members of indigenous religions. However Latinobarómetro in 2013 found 54% were Catholic, 31% Protestant, 10% atheist/agnostic/not religious, 4% other religions, and 1% did not answer. It also found in 1996 that 67% of the population considered themselves Catholic and 15% Protestant.

Denominations

Mision Cristiana Elim Internacional is a large pentecostal denomination started in El Salvador. It claims that its main church in San Salvador has 120,000 attending. The Assemblies of God claim 285,226 members (2007).

The Mormons claim 120,317 people in 164 congregations and 1 temple (2015) which if correct would be just under 2% of the population. An IUDOP study in 2009 found that Mormons were 2% of the Protestants they surveyed or about .8% of the total population. They started evangelizing in El Salvador in 1951.

The Anglican Church in El Salvador (a diocese of the province of the Anglican Church in Central America) claims 6,000 members in 18 congregations. The Baptist Association of El Salvador claims 4,427 members and the Salvadorean Lutheran Synod about 15,000 in 68 congregations,