A Portrait of American Catholics on the Eve of Pope Benedict's Visit

March 27, 2008

When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in the United States on April 15, he will find a Catholic Church that is undergoing rapid ethnic and demographic changes, and whose flock is quite diverse both in their religious practices and levels of commitment, as well as in their social and political views. And, as this portrait of American Catholics underscores, the pontiff will also find a church that is likely again to play a key role in the outcome of a U.S. presidential election.

Demographic Portrait of U.S. Catholics

According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey¹ recently released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Catholics account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. adults. By comparison, more than half (51.3%) of the adult population is Protestant and almost one-in-six (16.1%) are unaffiliated with any particular religion. The proportion of the U.S. population that identifies itself as Catholic has remained relatively stable in recent decades, but this apparent stability obscures major changes that are taking place within American Catholicism.

No other major faith in the U.S. has experienced greater net losses over the last few decades as a result of changes in religious affiliation than the Catholic Church. Nearly one-third (31.4%) of U.S. adults say they were raised Catholic. Today, however, only 23.9% of adults say they are affiliated with the Catholic Church, a net loss of 7.5 percentage points. Overall, roughly one-third of those who were raised Catholic have left the church, and approximately one-in-ten American adults are former Catholics.

At the same time, findings from the General Social Survey, conducted between 1972 and 2006 by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, have shown that the proportion of the population identifying as Catholic has remained relatively stable, at around 25%, over the last 30 years. During the same period, the Protestant share of the population has steadily declined, and the proportion of the population that is religiously unaffiliated has increased significantly. Why has the Catholic share of the U.S. population held steady even though so many people have left the Catholic Church?

Part of the answer is that the Catholic Church continues to attract a fair number of converts. The Landscape Survey finds that 2.6% of U.S. adults have switched their affiliation to Catholicism after being raised in another faith or in no faith at all. Nevertheless, former Catholics outnumber converts to Catholicism by roughly four-to-one, so other factors must account for the relative stability of the Catholic population. One obvious factor is immigration: The Landscape Survey finds that nearly half of all immigrants to the U.S. (46%) are Catholic, compared with just 21% of the native-born population.

The vast majority (82%) of Catholic immigrants to the U.S. were born in Latin America, and most Catholic immigrants from Latin America (52% of all Catholic immigrants to the U.S.) come from just one country -- Mexico. Catholics are also well represented among immigrants coming to the U.S. from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and East Asia; more than one-in-four of all immigrants from these regions are Catholic.

Impact of the Growing Latino Population

Recent demographic analyses conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that the Latino share of the U.S. population will grow significantly in the coming decades. Indeed, there are likely to be nearly 130 million Latinos in the U.S. by the year 2050 -- more than three times the size of the Latino population in 2005 (42 million). These estimates project that Latinos will account for 29% of the U.S. population by 2050, up from 14% in 2005.

As the Latino share of the U.S. population grows, the proportion of American Catholics who are Latino is likely to grow as well. The Landscape Survey finds that Latinos now account for nearly a third (29%) of all Catholic adults in the U.S. Perhaps more significantly, Latinos account for nearly half of Catholics under age 40. In contrast, older Catholics are predominantly white. For example, only 12% of Catholics age 70 and older are Hispanic.

According to the Landscape Survey, white, non-Latino Catholics are significantly older than the population as a whole. Hispanic Catholics, on the other hand, are much younger than the overall population. More than three-quarters (77%) of Hispanic Catholics are under age 50, compared with just half (51%) of white Catholics. And 28% of Hispanic Catholics are under age 30, compared with only 13% of white Catholics.

Changing Geographic Patterns

Changes in the ethnic composition of the Catholic population have the potential to change the geographic center of the Catholic Church as well. Historically, a greater proportion of Catholics have lived in the Northeast than in other parts of the U.S. Even today, close to one-in-three Catholics (29%) live in the Northeast, more than in any other region. But while two-thirds of white Catholics reside in the Northeast (35%) or the Midwest (31%), the overwhelming majority of Latino Catholics -- nearly three-in-four overall -- reside in the South (32%) or the West (42%).

Another way to gauge these geographic changes is to examine differences in the ethnic composition of the Catholic population in different geographic regions. For instance, white Catholics account for the vast majority of all Catholics living in the Northeast and Midwest (79% and 84%, respectively). By contrast, only 17% of Northeastern Catholics and 11% of Midwestern Catholics are Latinos. But Latinos account for more than half of all Catholics in the West and more than one-third of all Catholics in the South.

In the Washington, D.C., and New York City metropolitan areas - the two cities on the pope's itinerary -- more than six-in-ten Catholics are non-Latino whites (63% in Washington and 61% in New York). Latinos account for 23% of the Catholic population in the Washington area and 34% of the Catholic population in the New York area. The Washington area also has a significant number (14%) of Catholics who report their race as black, Asian or another race.

Differences in Education and Income

Overall, Catholics are about as well educated and as wealthy as the general public, but there are significant differences in the socioeconomic profiles of white Catholics compared with their Latino counterparts.

More than four-in-ten Hispanic Catholics (42%) have not finished high school, a number seven times higher than among white Catholics (6%). Hispanic Catholics are also much less well-off financially than white Catholics. More than half (55%) of Hispanic Catholics make less than $30,000 per year, while only one-fifth of white Catholics are in this income category. At the other end of the spectrum, six-in-ten white Catholics make at least $50,000 per year, while less than a quarter (24%) of Hispanic Catholics make that amount.

Religious Characteristics of U.S. Catholics

Catholics generally mirror the general population when it comes to basic measures of religious commitment (e.g., church attendance, importance of religion and frequency of prayer). But there are major differences among Catholics when it comes to the practice of their faith. Results from a summer 2007 survey by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press illustrate these distinctions².

Church Attendance

The similar percentage of Catholics (41%) and the public overall (38%) who say they attend church at least once a week, for instance, obscures the differences among Catholics on this measure. For example, there is a noticeable age gap; younger Catholics are significantly less likely than their older counterparts to attend church weekly or more often. Less than a third (30%) of Catholics ages 18-29 attend church this frequently, compared with nearly two-thirds (63%) of Catholics age 65 and older. A similar pattern is seen among the public overall, with older people more likely than their younger counterparts to attend church regularly.

Significant differences also exist among Catholics living in different regions of the country. Just over one-third (37%) of Northeastern Catholics attend church at least once a week, for example, while more than four-in-ten (45%) Midwestern Catholics attend church this frequently.

Women are eight percentage points more likely to attend services weekly than men (45% vs. 37%). Latino Catholics and white Catholics, however, report very similar levels of church attendance; 42% of each group say they attend church weekly.

Importance of Religion

More Catholics say religion is very important in their lives (57%) than the number who say they attend church at least once a week (41%). Among the general population, the number saying religion is very important is similar (61%), but the proportion saying it is somewhat important in their lives is smaller (24%) than among Catholics (33%). Fewer than one-in-ten Catholics say religion is not too or not at all important in their lives.

Looking at different subgroups of Catholics, the percentage of Catholics age 50 and older who say religion is very important in their lives is 10 percentage points higher than the number for the under-50 group. And the number of women who say religion is very important in their lives is nearly 20 percentage points more than the number of men who say this. Similar age and gender differences are found among the public overall.

There is also a 14-point gap between white, non-Hispanic Catholics and their Hispanic counterparts; 54% and 68%, respectively, say religion is very important in their lives.

Regional differences among Catholics are also quite stark. Just under half of Northeastern Catholics (47%) say religion is very important in their lives, compared with nearly three-quarters (73%) of Catholics in the South. Midwestern and Western Catholics come in at 55% and 58%, respectively.

Frequency of Prayer

Catholics pray with a similar frequency as the general public (56% of each group does so every day) but, again, a closer look shows significant differences among subsets of the Catholic population.

While 63% of Catholics age 50 and older say they pray at least once a day, the number is only 51% for Catholics under age 50. Women are significantly more likely than men to pray daily; 68% of Catholic women say they pray every day, compared with 44% of Catholic men. At least half of Catholics in every geographic region say they pray every day.

Renewalism Among Hispanic Catholics

Latino Catholics are helping to reshape the Catholic Church in the U.S. not only through their sheer numbers but also through their distinctive forms of worship. More than half (54%) of Hispanic Catholics identify themselves as charismatics, compared with only 12% of white, non-Hispanic Catholics.

Masses attended by Latino Catholics often exhibit the kind of exuberant atmosphere that is more characteristic of Pentecostalism ³ or other forms of charismatic or renewalist Christianity than of traditional American Catholicism. Among Latino Catholics who attend church services, for example, more than six-in-ten (62%) say that the Masses they attend at least occasionally include displays of excitement and enthusiasm, such as the raising of hands, clapping, shouting or jumping, according to a survey ⁴ conducted in 2006 by the Pew Forum and the Pew Hispanic Center.

Charismatic Christians place a special emphasis on divine healings, direct revelations from God, exorcisms and other signs of God's ongoing, day-to-day intervention in human affairs. Nearly half (45%) of Hispanic Catholics say they have received or witnessed a divine healing, compared with only 21% of non-Hispanic Catholics. Similarly, roughly a third (31%) of Hispanic Catholics claim to have received a direct revelation from God; the figure is 12% for non-Hispanic Catholics. Few Catholics have experienced or witnessed an exorcism, but more than twice as many Latinos (14%) say they have done so as do non-Latinos (6%).

It is important to point out that the adoption of some key features of pentecostal or charismatic Christianity by Hispanic Catholics does not appear to be undermining their commitment to Catholicism. The proportion of Latino Catholics who say they could never leave the Catholic Church is virtually the same among those who identify as charismatic (73%) as among those who do not (74%). In short, Latino Catholics seem to be incorporating charismatic practices without displacing their traditional Catholic identity. Moreover, charismatic Latino Catholics are somewhat more likely to serve in their parishes in volunteer capacities (e.g., as lectors, Eucharistic ministers, members of the choir or parish council, or leaders of small groups) as compared with non-charismatic Latino Catholics.

Large percentages of all Latino Catholics -- charismatics and non-charismatics alike -- embrace the church's traditional beliefs and practices. Nearly nine-in-ten Latino Catholics, for instance, believe that in the Mass the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ -- a core Catholic belief. More than eight-in-ten say they pray to the Virgin Mary. A sizable number of Latino Catholics (43%) also say they pray the rosary at least once or twice per month, and 43% say they go to confession at least a few times per year.

Social and Political Views of Catholics in the U.S.

On many life and family issues, including abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage and the death penalty, the views of Catholics tend to closely resemble the views of the U.S. public as a whole, according to Pew Research Center surveys from 2006 and 2007. On many of these issues, however, there are noticeable differences in the views of Catholics who attend church at least once a week and those who attend less frequently.

Despite the Catholic Church's strong opposition to abortion, a slim majority (51%) of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 44% oppose abortion in most or all cases. This breakdown is nearly identical to the views of the public as a whole. However, white Catholics who attend church at least once a week (60%) and Latino Catholics (53%) are more likely than Catholics as a whole to oppose legalized abortion in most or all circumstances.

Catholics' views on stem cell research also closely resemble the views of the public as a whole. But, here again, there are pronounced differences between Catholics who attend church regularly and those who do not. More than two-thirds of white Catholics who attend church less than once a week support stem cell research, while only 22% oppose such research. By contrast, white Catholics who attend church more frequently are evenly divided on the issue, with 46% saying it is more important to conduct stem cell research that might result in new medical cures and an equal number saying it is more important to avoid destroying human embryos.

Catholics are slightly more supportive of gay marriage than is the public as a whole. But opposition to gay marriage is much higher among white Catholics who attend church at least once a week (59%) than among those who attend less frequently (42%). A slight majority (52%) of Hispanic Catholics oppose gay marriage, with a significant number (16%) expressing no opinion on this issue.

On the issue of the death penalty, a majority of Catholics express views that are in tension with the Catholic Church's teachings against capital punishment. In the August 2007 Pew survey, six-in-ten Catholics expressed support for the death penalty, while only about one-third (35%) opposed it. Although white Catholics who attend church at least weekly were somewhat less likely to support capital punishment compared with white Catholics who attend less frequently, 55% of weekly attenders said they support the death penalty. Among Hispanic Catholics, fewer than half support the death penalty, with 47% saying they favor it and 40% expressing opposition.

Role of Government

The views of Catholics on other policy issues also tend to resemble the views of the public overall. For instance, nearly half (48%) of all Catholics say they would rather have a bigger government that offers more services, while 41% say they would prefer a smaller government that provides fewer services. Among the public as whole, in comparison, 43% favor a larger government role and 45% prefer a smaller government role.

There are, however, significant divisions among Catholics on the role of government. Most notably, Hispanic Catholics are much more supportive of an active government -- 77% express support for a bigger government that provides more services -- than are white, non-Latino Catholics (36%). Additionally, young Catholics are more supportive of an expanded role for government than are older Catholics. More than half (56%) of Catholics under age 50 prefer a larger government that offers more services, compared with fewer than four-in-ten (36%) Catholics age 50 and older.

Among white Catholics, frequency of church attendance also makes a difference. White Catholics who attend church weekly tend to favor a smaller government (62%) rather than a larger government (25%). White Catholics who attend church less often, on the other hand, are more closely divided on this question; 45% favor a smaller government that provides fewer services, while 44% favor a larger government that provides more services.

Immigration

Catholics are somewhat more likely than the population as a whole to express the view that immigrants strengthen American society. Not surprisingly, Hispanic Catholics tend to be much more supportive of immigrants and immigration compared with their non-Latino counterparts; two-thirds of Latino Catholics say that immigrants strengthen American society, while only 22% say that immigrants threaten American customs and values.

White Catholics are fairly evenly divided on this question, and there tend to be only slight differences between those who attend church at least once a week (49% of whom say immigrants strengthen American society) and those who attend church less often (46% of whom say immigrants strengthen American society).

Health Care

On the issue of universal health care, there are few substantial differences among Catholics. Majorities of every major Catholic subgroup -- including 69% of Latino Catholics, 62% of white Catholics who attend church weekly and 71% of white Catholics who attend church less often -- support the federal government guaranteeing health insurance for all citizens.

Ideology and Partisanship

The ideological portrait of Catholics is similar to that of the population as a whole. More than four-in-ten Catholics (44%) describe themselves as politically moderate, about a third (34%) say they are politically conservative and less than one-in-five (18%) describe themselves as politically liberal. Among the population as a whole, 39% say they are moderates, 36% say they are conservatives and 19% say they are liberals.

Despite being fairly conservative on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, Latino Catholics are more likely than other Catholics to describe themselves as politically liberal; more than one-in-four (26%) Latino Catholics describe their ideology as liberal. Latino Catholics are less likely than other Catholics to describe themselves as moderates (27% vs. 44% for all Catholics) and about as likely as Catholics overall to describe themselves as conservatives (31% vs. 34%).

Among both white and Latino Catholics, those who attend religious services more frequently are more likely to describe their ideology as conservative. The gap is particularly pronounced among white Catholics; 43% of those who attend church at least once a week describe themselves as conservative, compared with only 30% of white Catholics who attend church less often.

Older Catholics are much more likely than their younger counterparts to describe themselves as politically conservative. More than four-in-ten Catholics age 65 and older (43%) say they are conservatives, with only 11% identifying as liberals. Catholics under age 30, by contrast, are equally likely to describe themselves as liberals as to describe themselves as conservatives (27% and 26%, respectively).

When it comes to party affiliation, Catholic registered voters also closely resemble the population as a whole. Nearly four-in-ten (37%) are Democrats, more than a quarter (27%) are Republicans and nearly a third (31%) are independents. Latino Catholics are noticeably more Democratic than are their white, non-Latino counterparts, with more than half (55%) of Latino Catholic registered voters identifying with the Democratic Party.

While older Catholics are more likely than younger Catholics to be conservative, they are also more likely than those under age 30 to identify with the Democratic Party. More than four-in-ten Catholics age 65 and older (44%) identify themselves as Democrats, compared with only 34% of Catholics ages 18-29.

Voting Patterns

In recent presidential elections Catholics have tended to split their vote roughly evenly between Republican and Democratic candidates.

In 2000, Al Gore and George Bush nearly split the Catholic vote (50% to 47%, respectively). In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry among Catholics, but by a relatively narrow margin (52% to 47%).

White Catholics have been more supportive of Republicans in recent elections than have Latino Catholics, with Bush enjoying a seven-point margin of victory among white Catholics in 2000 and a 13-point margin of victory among this group in 2004. And white Catholics who attend religious services at least once a week have been the most reliable Republican constituency within the Catholic population, supporting Bush over Gore (58% to 39%) in 2000 and Bush over Kerry by an almost identical margin in 2004.

Despite the inroads that Bush made between 2000 and 2004 among Hispanic Protestants, his support among Hispanic Catholics was identical in both elections. In both 2000 and 2004, one-third of Latino Catholic voters supported Bush, with large majorities opting instead for his Democratic opponent. The sheer size of the Catholic population alone guarantees that Catholic groups will continue to play an important electoral role in 2008.

This report was written by Luis Lugo, Director; Gregory Smith, Research Fellow; Dan Cox, Research Associate; and Allison Pond, Research Associate, at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Read the full report on American Catholics at pewforum.org.

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Notes

¹ http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/

² Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Religion and Public Life Survey, final topline, August 1-18, 2007.

³ Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, October 5, 2006.

⁴ Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Pew Hispanic Center, Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion, April 25, 2007.