PNCEA - FAQ's - Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association

The Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association

2. What research information is helpful in understanding the impact and urgency of Catholic evangelization today?

The Catholic Population in the U.S.
The Catholic population in the U.S. is 69,135,254 which represents 23% of the total U.S. population (The Official Catholic Directory, 2006).

New Adult Catholics
There were 154,501 new adult Catholics in 2006: 80,817 adults were baptized, and 73,684 already baptized adults were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church (The Official Catholic Directory, 2006).

Number of Unchurched
A September 12-15, 2005 Gallup Poll indicates that 43% of Americans are “unchurched.” This percentage has remained relatively unchanged since 1978 when Gallup first began tracking this statistic. Unchurched are defined as those who answer “no” to either one or both of the following questions: “Do you happen to be a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque?”, and “Apart from weddings, funerals, or special holidays, such as Christmas, Easter or Yom Kippur, have you attended the church, synagogue, or mosque of your choice in the past six months, or not?” Similar studies in other countries indicate that 66% of Canadians and 80% of Britons are unchurched.

Number of Inactive Catholics
Approximately 21,000,000 of the unchurched in America are inactive Catholics. This number is based on The American Religious Identification Survey, 2001 by Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The study provides one answer about the number of inactive Catholics. The authors found that of the Catholics responding, 59% belonged to a parish, and 41% did not. Drawing on U.S. Census information, the authors determined that 24.5% of the U.S. Catholic adult population in 2001, or 50,873,000 persons, were 18 or older. Of these, 41% or 20,858,000 were not members of a parish. Most of these 20,858,000 people are inactive Catholics.

The Religious Experience of Catholic Teens
Ten percent of Catholic teens say that religious faith is extremely important in shaping their daily life and 11% respond that their faith is extremely important in shaping their major life decisions. Only 9% of Catholic teens say they feel extremely close to God. Dr. Christian Smith and his colleagues discovered this information in their recent National Study of Youth and Religion.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Smith stated, “Compared both to official Catholic norms of faithfulness and to other types of Christian teens in the United States, contemporary U.S. Catholic teens are faring rather badly. On most measures of religious faith, belief, experience, and practice, Catholic teens as a whole show up as fairly weak.”

The study is reported in the Fall 2005 issue of The CARA Report published by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University.

Decline in Mass Attendance
Weekly Mass attendance has declined from about 75 percent in the 1950s to about 34 percent in 2005, according to Dr. Mary Gautier of CARA. The 34 percent figure is derived from phone surveys of 875 lay Catholics in 2005 by the Gallup Organization. The same study also found that 32 percent of baptized Catholics are not registered in a parish. Dr. Gautier reports that baptized Catholics who are registered in a parish (68 percent) are much more likely to participate in Church activities and to be satisfied with their Church, their parish, and their pastor.

These findings are reported in “American Catholics from John Paul II to Benedict XVI” by William V. D’Antonio, Dean Hoge, James Davidson, and Mary Gautier, The National Catholic Reporter, September 30, 2005.

A summary of the NCR article is found in the Winter 2006 issue of The CARA Report published by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University. For further information, contact Dr. Mary Gautier at 202-687-8080.

Increase in Those with No Religion
An increasing number of adults in the U.S. do not identify with any religion. In 1972, 5.1 percent of the adult population did not identify with any religion. The number increased to 9.0 percent in 1993 and to 13.8 percent in 2002. For more information, see the Winter 2006 issue of The CARA Report published by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University. Contact Dr. Mary Gautier at CARA, 202-687-8080, to subscribe.

Church Attendance Varies by State
Church attendance is highest in the South and lowest in New England. This analysis is based on responses to the question, “How often do you attend church or synagogue—at least once a week, almost every week, about once a month, seldom, or never?”

Responding to this question in Gallup Poll surveys between January 2004 and March 2006, 31% of Americans said they attended church or synagogue once a week, 11% almost every week, 13% once a month, 27% seldom, and 16% never. Combining the first two categories, an average of 42% of Americans said they attend church weekly or almost weekly.

Attendance varies widely by state. The five states with the highest weekly/almost weekly church attendance are Alabama (58%), Louisiana (58%), South Carolina (58%), Mississippi (57%), and Utah (55%). The five states with the lowest weekly/almost weekly church attendance are Massachusetts (31%), Rhode Island (28%), Nevada (27%), Vermont (24%), and New Hampshire (24%).

Source: Gallup Poll News Service, April 27, 2006.