{"id":262265,"date":"2025-06-16T13:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=262265"},"modified":"2026-05-01T11:45:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:45:53","slug":"profile-of-us-converts-to-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/06\/16\/profile-of-us-converts-to-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"5. Profile of U.S. converts to Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
How we define Catholics in this chapter<\/summary>\n

This chapter exclusively explores views and experiences among U.S. Catholics (i.e., the 20% of U.S. adults who say they are Catholic when asked about their present religion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Americans who are not<\/em> Catholic are still connected to the faith in other ways. Read more about these \u201ccultural Catholics,\u201d former Catholics, and people with other Catholic connections (i.e., those who have  a Catholic parent, spouse or partner, or say \u201cyes\u201d when asked if they ever attend Catholic Mass) in Chapter 7<\/a> and the Overview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., 92% of Catholics are \u201ccradle Catholics\u201d \u2013 people who say they were raised Catholic and also say they are Catholic when asked about their religion today. The remaining 8% are converts to Catholicism \u2013 people who say their religion is Catholicism today but that they were not brought up Catholic.[14. numoffset=”14″ The estimate that 92% of Catholics are \u201ccradle Catholics\u201d and 8% are converts comes from Pew Research Center\u2019s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS). The more recent (Feb. 3-9, 2025) survey produces similar estimates of the balance of cradle Catholics and converts (93% and 7%, respectively). In this chapter, we use data from the RLS where possible, because the RLS has a larger sample than the 2025 survey. We use data from the 2025 survey to analyze questions that were asked on that survey but not in the RLS.] Overall, 1.5% of all U.S. adults are converts to Catholicism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pie<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On average, converts to the faith attend Mass weekly at somewhat higher rates than cradle Catholics. Higher shares of converts than cradle Catholics also say they receive Communion every time they attend Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the percentages of Catholics who say they pray daily and go to confession at least once a year are similar among converts and cradle Catholics. And the share of converts who say they have attended a Traditional Latin Mass in the last five years is not much different from the share of cradle Catholics who say this (18% and 13%, respectively).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politically, converts are somewhat more Republican than cradle Catholics and are about as likely to describe themselves as conservatives, ideologically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why they became Catholic, the most common response offered by converts is because of a spouse, or to get married in the church. Others say becoming Catholic aligned with their values or that Catholicism made sense to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of this chapter looks at deeper comparisons of Catholic converts with cradle Catholics. Our analysis includes results from both the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) and Pew Research Center\u2019s survey of Catholics conducted Feb. 3-9, 2025. The RLS has a larger sample size than the 2025 survey, and so on questions where we have data from both, we use the RLS. That said, the 2025 survey includes a number of questions about Catholicism that were not asked as part of the RLS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Converts to Catholicism represent a small group in the broader U.S. public (1.5% of U.S. adults), and so both the RLS and the 2025 survey have relatively modest samples of members of this group. The RLS includes 662 interviews with converts to Catholicism, and results based on this group have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points. The 2025 survey of Catholics includes 148 interviews with converts to Catholicism, and results based on this group have a margin of error of plus or minus 10.1 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about the following on Catholic converts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n