Catholics are one of the largest religious groups in the United States, outnumbering any single Protestant denomination. The U.S. has more Catholics than all but three other countries – Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines – according to the Vatican’s 2021 Statistical Yearbook of the Church.
Here are 10 key facts about the U.S. Catholic population, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys.
Today, 20% of U.S. adults describe themselves as Catholics. This percentage has been generally stable since 2014. But it is slightly lower than in 2007, when 24% of U.S. adults identified as Catholic.
Overall, there were about 267 million U.S. adults in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This suggests that there are roughly 53 million Catholic adults nationwide.
The share of U.S. Catholics who are Hispanic is rising. Currently, the Catholic population is 54% White, 36% Hispanic, 4% Asian and 2% Black. An additional 2% identify with another race.
Since 2007, the share who are White has dropped by 10 percentage points, while the share who are Hispanic has grown by 7 points.
This change has implications for the profile of Catholic Americans overall because Catholics from different racial and ethnic backgrounds have distinctive social and political traits, as we’ll discuss below.
More than four-in-ten U.S. Catholics are immigrants (29%) or the children of immigrants (14%). But some racial and ethnic groups have much higher shares of first- and second-generation immigrants.
For example, 78% of Asian Catholics were born outside the U.S., and an additional 14% were born in the U.S. but have at least one parent who was not.
Among Hispanic Catholics, 58% were born outside the U.S., and 22% were born in the U.S. to at least one immigrant parent.
By contrast, 83% of White Catholics are from families who have been in the U.S. for three generations or longer.
(The 2023-24 survey did not include enough Black Catholics to report on them separately. Refer to our 2022 analysis for more information about Black Catholics.)
Catholics tend to be older than Americans overall. Nearly six-in-ten Catholic adults (58%) are ages 50 and older. By comparison, 47% of all U.S. adults in the Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) fall in this age range.
But Hispanic Catholics and Asian Catholics tend to be a lot younger than White Catholics. Four-in-ten Hispanic Catholics and 53% of Asian Catholics are 50 and older, compared with 70% of White Catholics. And just 14% of Hispanic Catholics and 20% of Asian Catholics are ages 65 and older, versus 39% of White Catholics.
Catholics are spread out relatively evenly across the U.S. Roughly three-in-ten (29%) live in the South, while 26% live in the Northeast, 25% in the West and 20% in the Midwest.
The racial and ethnic makeup of the Catholic population varies by region. For example, in the Midwest, 78% of Catholics are White and 15% are Hispanic. In the Northeast, 72% of Catholics are White and 20% are Hispanic.
In the South, 44% are White and 45% are Hispanic. And in the West, there are more Hispanic Catholics than White Catholics (58% vs. 27%). The West also has a relatively larger population of Asian Catholics than do other regions (10%).
More than one-third of U.S. Catholics (35%) have a bachelor’s degree. Another 27% have some college experience but not a bachelor’s degree, and 38% have a high school education or less. This distribution is similar to that of the general adult population.
On average, Asian Catholics and White Catholics have higher levels of educational attainment than Hispanic Catholics. About half of Asian Catholics (53%) have a college degree, while 21% have a high school education or less. Among White Catholics, 43% have at least a bachelor’s degree, while 29% have a high school education or less. Among Hispanic Catholics, 20% have a bachelor’s degree and 54% have a high school education or less.
About three-in-ten U.S. Catholics (29%) say they attend Mass weekly or more often. Larger shares say they pray on a daily basis (51%) and say religion is very important in their lives (44%). By comparison, Protestants are slightly more likely to say they do or believe each of these things.
Overall, 21% of U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass weekly and pray daily and consider religion very important. By contrast, 10% say they attend Mass a few times a year or less, pray seldom or never, and consider religion not too or not all important.
About half of Catholics who are registered voters (53%) identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, while 43% affiliate with the Democratic Party.
But partisan affiliation varies by race and ethnicity. Roughly six-in-ten White Catholic registered voters (61%) say they identify with or lean toward the GOP, while 36% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.
Conversely, 56% of Hispanic Catholics who are registered voters say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with 39% who favor the GOP.
While the Catholic Church opposes abortion, 59% of Catholics say abortion should be legal. This includes 35% who say it should be legal in most cases and 25% who say it should be legal in all cases. Roughly four-in-ten Catholics say abortion should be illegal in most (26%) or all (13%) cases.
Catholics’ opinions about abortion tend to align with their political leanings. Among Catholic Democrats, 78% say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Among Catholic Republicans, 43% say this.
Catholic Democrats (78%) are a little less likely than Democrats as a whole (86%) to say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
Roughly three-quarters of Catholics (78%) view Pope Francis favorably, according to our February 2025 survey. At least 80% of Catholics have expressed a favorable opinion of him in 10 of the 15 U.S. surveys in which we have asked about the pope since 2013.
Catholic Democrats (88%) are much more likely than Catholic Republicans (69%) to view Francis favorably.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published Sept. 4, 2018.
