What Proportion of Adult Hispanics Are Catholic? A Review of Survey Data and Methodology

Abstract

The proportion of Hispanics who are Catholic remains unclear, partly because of varying survey methods and limited understanding of how these variations affect estimates of Hispanic religious identification. We compare 12 national surveys conducted since 1990. Language use strongly predicts religious identification among Hispanicsmore strongly than other indicators of assimilation-and evidence suggests English-only interviewing inflates Protestant identification. Additionally, identifying Hispanics through ancestry questions may inflate Catholic identification. We also explore effects of sampling bias, noncoverage bias, and weighting on religious identification. Analyses suggest that poststratification weighting is advisable, particularly for language use. However, weighting cannot fully substitute for extensive coverage of subpopulations such as recent immigrants and Spanish-only speakers. We conclude that 70 percent or slightly more is a reasonable estimate of the proportion of adult Hispanics who are Catholic, and 20 percent a reasonable estimate of the proportion who are Protestant or other Christian.

Risky Sexual Behavior Among Young Adult Latinas: Are Acculturation and Religiosity Protective?

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“…Our comparison group consisted of Catholics because this is the affiliation of a significant majority of Latinas/os (Perl et al 2006). The small numbers of respondents who did not answer this item or whose religious affiliation did not fit within the three broad categories were dropped from the analyses.…”

“…Catholicism remains the dominant faith tradition among U.S. Latinas/os, with approximately 65 to 70 percent identifying as Catholic (Espinosa et al 2005;Perl et al 2006;Pew Research Center 2014), yet certainly not all who profess Catholicism attend mass regularly or partake in other church rites. Scholars argue that Catholicism has long been intertwined with Latina/o family and gender norms, reinforcing values such as familism and machismo (Diaz-Stevens 1994;Williams 1990).…”

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