{"id":262055,"date":"2025-06-16T13:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=262055"},"modified":"2026-05-01T11:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:45:45","slug":"47-of-us-adults-have-a-personal-or-family-connection-to-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/06\/16\/47-of-us-adults-have-a-personal-or-family-connection-to-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"47% of U.S. Adults Have a Personal or Family Connection to Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A closer look at Catholic life in the U.S.<\/h2>\n\n\n
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(Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How we did this<\/summary>\n

Pew Research Center conducted this study to estimate how many Americans have connections with Catholicism, to measure religious beliefs and practices among U.S. Catholics, and to explore what Catholics consider essential to their Catholic identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We analyzed two surveys: the 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study (RLS)<\/a> and a smaller, but more recent, survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 3-9, 2025, which included many questions designed specifically for Catholics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report relies mostly on the 2025 survey, which was conducted among a sample of 9,544 U.S. adults, including 1,787 Catholics. All the respondents were members of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people who have agreed to take surveys regularly and who were recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. ATP surveys are conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey data is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, and other factors. Read more about the ATP\u2019s Methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the 1,787 respondents who self-identify as Catholic, the 2025 survey included 782 interviews with people who are not Catholic (by religion) but who consider themselves culturally Catholic, 836 respondents who are former Catholics, and 878 people who have other Catholic connections (i.e., they have a Catholic parent or spouse\/partner, or they say \u201cyes\u201d when asked if they ever attend Catholic Mass).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the questions from the 2025 survey used in this report<\/a>, the topline<\/a> and the survey methodology<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some estimates, this report relies on the 2023-24 RLS<\/a>, an extremely large survey with 36,908 respondents, including 6,958 Catholics. The RLS asked a few of the same questions as the 2025 survey (for example, about religious attendance, political party identification and demographic characteristics such as age and race). Because of the much larger sample and greater statistical precision available in the RLS, we have relied on RLS data when analyzing responses by Catholics to questions that appeared in both the RLS and the 2025 survey.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Catholicism\u2019s roots in the United States run deep. Nearly half of U.S. adults (47%) claim some connection to the Catholic faith. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n