Nearly half of Americans feel connection with Catholicism, but few practice
June 17, 2025
» Continue to this story on Pew Forum
CWN Editor's Note: A new study by Pew Research has found that 47% of all Americans are connected in some way with the Catholic Church.
When questioned about religion, 20% of respondents to the Pew survey identified themselves as Catholics. Another 9% described themselves as “cultural Catholics, identifying with the faith because of ethnic background; 9% more said that they were former Catholics; and a final 9% said that they have some relationship with a Catholic so that they sometimes attend Mass.
Of the self-identified Catholics, only 28% attend Sunday Mass regularly, half say that they pray daily, and 23% reported a sacramental confession at least once a year. “Altogether,” Pew reported, “only 13% of American Catholic say they do all three of these things.
In other findings, Pew reported:
- less than half (47%) of American Catholics ever go to confession;
- 62% say that the sex-abuse scandals are “ongoing problems” rather than past occurrences; and
- While only 2% attend a Traditional Latin Mass regularly, a much larger number—13% report having attended the traditional liturgy during the past five years. The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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