Latin Americans and Roma people face highest levels of racial discrimination in Spain
The most notable expressions of marginalisation or rejection occur in employment and in access to housing, health and education
The groups most discriminated against in Spain because of their race, ethnicity or place of origin are Latin Americans and Roma people, followed by Muslims and black people. This has been confirmed by analyses carried out by Consejo para la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial y Étnica (Cedre), which is attached to the Ministry of Equality.
Cedre aims to promote equal treatment and non-discrimination on the basis of racial or ethnic origin and combat marginalisation in all areas of daily life, such as education, health, social benefits and services, housing, employment, training and, in general, access to any goods or services. In addition to advising victims of discrimination who reside in Spain on how to lodge complaints, Cedre has other functions such as publishing studies and research and promoting measures that contribute to equal treatment.
3,300 victims
Last year, Cedre dealt with 2,703 cases of possible discrimination involving 3,280 victims - an average of nine calls and seven cases per day. The reason for the disparity in figures is that 2,178 of the complaints received were individual cases and 508 collective cases.
This body has a national scope, so it receives requests for help from all the regions. The regions with the highest number of cases of discrimination in 2025 were Madrid, with 397 cases, followed by Andalucía (292), Castilla y León (214), the Balearic Islands (197), the Canary Islands (192) and Catalonia (165). By provinces, those with the highest number of cases were Madrid (397), the Balearic Islands (197), La Rioja (120), Valladolid (120), Cantabria (116), Tenerife (103) and Ciudad Real (96).
The complaints reflect a great diversity of racial and ethnic origins in marginalisation or rejection, but those directed against residents from Latin America stand out, with 850 complaints (almost a third of the total), followed by Roma people (468), those from Muslim and Arab countries (349) and black people (345).
Of all the cases under investigation, 1,302 concerned direct and 884 indirect discrimination. Clearly, marginalisation and segregation affected more women (1,303) than men (995).
The areas and contexts in which discrimination occurs are multiple, with no clear main focus. The area with the highest number of discrimination based on race, origin or ethnicity, according to Cedre's observations in 2025, was private employment, with 434 cases, followed by access to housing (332), health services (327) and education (226). Discriminations linked to access to other goods and services accounted for 373 complaints.
