Pew data profiles demographics, beliefs, and practices of U.S. Catholics

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

Nearly 20% of adults in the United States — approximately 50 million people — call themselves Catholic, but the American Catholic population is diverse in its beliefs, its adherence to Church teaching, and its religious practices as well as its social and political views.

Much of this data was revealed in the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center, which was published earlier this year.

The analysis by Pew finds that the proportion of the Catholic population in the United States has fallen over the past decade and a half, as about 24% of the country’s population identified as Catholic in 2007. The religiosity of those who identify as Catholic has also decreased in that time frame.

Immigrants currently make up about 29% of the American Catholic population and children of immigrants make up an additional 14%, accounting for 43% of the total number. Hispanic Catholics account for most of the immigrant or first generation Catholic segment and have also become a larger percentage of the country’s overall Catholic population, growing by 7 points since 2007 and now making up 36% of American Catholics.

Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, told CNA this is mostly caused by Hispanics “growing as a share of the total population” of the United States. The percentage of Hispanics who identify as Catholic, however, has declined.

“Those two things can be happening at once,” said Smith, who delivered a presentation of the broader findings of the Religious Landscape Study at the 2025 annual conference of the Religion News Association in Arlington, Virginia, on April 3.

A large percentage of Catholics, about 78%, have a favorable view of Pope Francis. The Holy Father’s favorability rating among American Catholics has fluctuated between a high of 90% in February 2015 to a low of 72% in September 2018.

Most Catholics pray, but fewer attend Mass

The survey found that about 51% of Catholics pray every day and another 31% pray at least weekly or monthly, with only 18% answering that they rarely or never pray. About 22% attend prayer groups at least several times per year, with 8% doing so weekly and 5% doing so once or twice per month.

Weekly Mass attendance for Catholics, however, was only about 29%, but another 11% go to Mass once or twice per month and 27% attend a few times every year. About 32% seldom or never go to Mass. 

All of the above indicators are lower than in 2007, based on Pew’s numbers. About 58% of Catholics prayed daily that year and 13% of Catholics seldom or never prayed. Weekly Mass attendance in 2007 was at 41%, which means that number has fallen by 12 points. In that year, only 19% of Catholics seldom or never attended Mass, and that number is now 13 points higher.

About 66% of Catholics who were surveyed said they had attended Mass weekly when they were children. About 57% said that religion was very important to their families while growing up and 32% said it was somewhat important.

Many other Christian traditions have also suffered from a decline in religiosity.

“In general, I’d say the trends in Catholics look pretty similar [to other denominations],” Smith told CNA.

A smaller percentage of Catholics are regularly reading the Bible as well. About 14% read the Bible at least once per week compared with 21% in 2007. About 67% of Catholics seldom or never read the Bible, compared with 57% in 2007. 

Strong belief in God, weaker on specific teachings

Nearly two-thirds of Catholics say they are certain that God exists and slightly over one-third say they believe in God but are not absolutely certain. About 86% say they believe in heaven, but just 69% believe in hell.

In 2007, about 72% of Catholics had said they were certain of God’s existence, which means this trended downward by about 10 points. In contrast, belief in heaven and hell have both gone up. In 2007, only 82% believed in heaven and only 60% believed in hell, which means there was a 4-point increase in belief in heaven and a 9-point increase in the belief in hell in that time frame.

About 21% of Catholics currently consider themselves very religious and another 55% say they are somewhat religious. Only 24% say they are not too religious or not religious at all. A larger percentage, 29%, consider themselves very spiritual and 52% consider themselves somewhat spiritual. Only 19% say they are not spiritual at all. 

Pew also found that many Catholics deviate from the Church’s teachings on social and cultural issues that intersect with politics.

About 59% of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, even though the Church teaches that human life begins at conception and abortion is always immoral. The data shows that only 39% of Catholics believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. 

This has shifted substantially since 2007 even though a plurality of Catholics, 48%, said they supported legal abortion in all or most cases in that year. At that time, 45% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. 

About 70% of Catholics support homosexual marriages, even though the Church teaches that marriage is reserved for only heterosexual couples. This is much higher than the 57% of Catholics who said they supported homosexual marriage in 2007.

However, the frequency of Mass attendance is correlated with a higher likelihood of adhering to Church teachings on many issues, such as abortion and homosexual marriage. About 61% of Catholics who attend Mass believe abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances and only 36% believe it should be legal. 

Smith told CNA that this correlation holds true for many other issues, such as sexuality, birth control, the ordination of women, and a married priesthood.

“On each of those questions, there are big differences by Mass attendance,” Smith said.

Catholics are divided on politics, with about 49% saying they lean Republican and 44% saying they lean Democrat. This is also a major shift from 2007, when only 33% leaned Republican, 48% leaned Democrat, and 19% had no leaning.

Some of those political shifts were reflected in the 2024 election. Polls showed that President Donald Trump won the Catholic vote by a double-digit margin, which was mostly caused by an ongoing trend of Hispanic Catholics becoming less likely to support the Democratic Party in elections.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263163/pew-data-profiles-demographics-beliefs-and-practices-of-us-catholics