Catholics to form 30% of incoming US Congress
December 19, 2008
Catholics will account for 30% of the American legislators taking their seats in Washington when the 111th Congress convenes in January, a Pew Forum survey finds. That figure is up slightly from the 28% Catholic representation in the last (110th) Congress, and dramatically higher than the 19% in 1961. Catholics are by far the largest single religious body in Congress, outnumbering the second-largest religious group, the Baptists, by more than 2-to-1. The Catholic presence on Capitol Hill is stronger than in the general US population; Catholics make up slightly less than one-fourth of the American adult population. Most of the Catholics in Congress are Democrats, with 115 being identified with the majority party and only 46 Republicans.
The Pew study found that Congressional representatives are more strongly identified with religion than the overall population. "Only five members of the new Congress (about 1%) did not specify a religious affiliation… and no members specifically said they were unaffiliated." About one-sixth of all Americans describe themselves as religious unaffiliated.
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