Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Mexico today for his first visit to a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America.Mexico accounts for 8.8% of the world\u2019s Catholics, the second largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil (which the Pope visited in 2007). More than eight-in-ten (84.9%) Mexicans are Catholic.<\/p>\n\n
The pope will head to Cuba next week, a country which has about 5,820,000 Catholics. Catholics make up a little over half of the country\u2019s population.<\/p>\n\n
There are approximately 432 million Catholics in Latin America, representing 39% of the world Catholic population.<\/p>\n\n
For a report on the world\u2019s Christian populations, including interactive maps and sortable data tables, go to the Global Christianity<\/a> page of the Pew Research Center\u2019s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Mexico today for his first visit to a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. Approximately 8.8% of the world\u2019s Catholics live in Mexico, the second largest Catholic population in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713064010","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[180,175,405],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-16481","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-global-religious-demographics","category-size-demographic-characteristics-of-religious-groups","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":123,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2012\/03\/22\/mexico-host-to-visit-by-the-pope-has-worlds-second-largest-catholic-population\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Mexico, Host to Visit by the Pope, Has World\u2019s Second Largest Catholic Population","description":"Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Mexico today for his first visit to a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. 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