Majority of U.S. Catholics Express Favorable View of Pope Francis
Most say Francis represents change in the church. And many say the church should allow priests to marry and let Catholics use birth control.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Most say Francis represents change in the church. And many say the church should allow priests to marry and let Catholics use birth control.
Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, even as their share among Latino adults has steadily declined over the past decade. The share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated is now on par with U.S. adults overall.
71% of Hispanic Catholics see climate change as an extremely or very serious problem, compared with 49% of White, non-Hispanic Catholics.
Catholics are one of the largest religious groups in the United States, outnumbering any single Protestant denomination.
Most Black Catholic churchgoers are racial minorities in their congregations, unlike White and Hispanic Catholics – and Black Protestants
In the United States, 21% of adults overall say they fast for certain periods during holy times.
Most U.S. adults are neutral toward several religious groups, though Americans tend to rate their own religious group positively. More than a third of Americans hold unfavorable views of multiple religious groups.
A rising share of Asian Americans say they have no religion (32%), but many consider themselves close to one or more religious traditions for reasons such as family or culture. Christianity is still the largest faith group among Asian Americans (34%).
58% of U.S. adults say they do not believe “we are living in the end times” – the destruction of the world as we know it.
About three-quarters of U.S. Catholics (76%) say abortion should be illegal in some cases but legal in others.
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