Frequently Requested Catholic Church Statistics

January 24, 2010 by  
Filed under Patrick's Blog

Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has released a fascinating new set of data on trends within the Catholic Church in the U.S. There’s a lot here, including statistics on things like numbers of priests, sisters, deacons, parishes, Mass attendance, Catholic schools, etc. Here some other issues the study considers:

  • Is Catholic Mass attendance becoming less frequent?
  • How many Catholics go to Mass in any given week and how many go every week?
  • Why do Catholics say they miss weekly Mass from time to time?
  • How often do Catholics receive Eucharist at Mass?
  • What percentage of Catholics go to Confession frequently?
  • What percentage of Catholics give regularly to their parish offertory collection?
  • How many Catholics consider a clerical or religious vocation?
  • How many Catholics receive ashes on Ash Wednesday or abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent?
  • What percentage of the U.S. adult population identifies as Catholic?
  • How many people raised Catholic stop considering themselves Catholic later in life?
  • Who do Catholics vote for? Since 1952 and more specific articles for the 2008, 2004, and 2000elections
  • How many Latinos/Latinas self-identify as Catholic?
  • What are the differences and similarities in the religious beliefs and practices of Latino/a Catholics and non-Latino/s Catholics?
  • How likely are Catholics to be married to a Catholic? How likely are they to divorce?
  • What percentage of Catholics have celebrated their First Communion and have been confirmed?

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6 Responses to “Frequently Requested Catholic Church Statistics”
  1. Anonymous says:

    Patrick,

    The link appears to be broken as of August 2010. Where might this be found now?

    Thanks!

  2. hal says:

    Here is another important question: How many Catholics know that Abortion is a good medical procedure that saves may lives, yet this procedure is used to Murder little babies? How many Catholics think that this so called "abortion" is really Murder and would know that it is murder? very few I wager.

  3. Ann says:

    For Tom– click the link for the answers

  4. Tom says:

    What good is a list of questions?

  5. Tap says:

    Interesting set of statistics. But Jesus said many are called few are chosen.
    Many just don't have the courage of lifetime conviction and many will return on their death beds.
    (note: this weekend a baseball player that should have gone to the major leagues(A's)decided to take a better offer by God and is going to become a priest) Thank God!

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