Mexican and Dominican Catholics beat out other Hispanic populations
Mexicans and Dominicans are more likely to call themselves Catholic than most other Hispanic nationalities living in the United States. A report released Tuesday by the Pew Research…
FILE – In this Nov. 21, 2010 photo, Mass is held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010 in New York. St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City is embarking on a multimillion-dollar renovation. Mexicans and Dominicans are the two Latino groups in the US that mostly identify themselves as Catholic. (AP Photo Stephen Chernin)
Mexicans and Dominicans are more likely to call themselves Catholic than most other Hispanic nationalities living in the United States.
A report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows the share of Latino adults who identify as Catholic is declining as the share of Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated rise. Meanwhile, Salvadorans are more likely to say they’re Evangelical Protestants than Mexicans, Cubans and Dominicans.
Today, 55 perecent of Latinos in the U.S. say they’re Catholic, a drop of 12 percentage points in the last four years, while the share of those who are Protestant and unaffiliated with any religion has risen.
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This chart shows the Latino population living in the U.S. by nationality, with Mexicans leading by an overwhelming majority. (Pew Research Center)
The differences between Hispanic origin groups fade when it comes to religious switchingthe percentage of those who have left their childhood religion.
About one-third of Mexicans (30%), Puerto Ricans (34%), Cubans (33%), Salvadorans (32%) and Dominicans (34%) said they have switched from their childhood religion. About 5% of Hispanics, regardless of origin group, identify as mainline Protestant. But religious affiliations differ between Hispanic immigrants and those born in the U.S. For example, the share of all Hispanic immigrants who are Catholic exceeds the rate among those born in the U.S., by 60% to 48%. Among Mexicans, 68% of immigrants identify as Catholic, compared with 51% of those born in the U.S. Some 24% of Mexicans born in the U.S. said they are religiously unaffiliated, a rate about twice as high as among immigrants.
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