by Catholic News Service
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WASHINGTON -- A new analysis of religious identification data finds that contrary to popular belief, U.S. Latinos are not leaving behind Catholicism for Protestant churches, but instead are affiliating themselves with no religion at all.
A study released March 16 by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, a secular liberal arts school in Hartford, Conn., reported that although Latinos remain predominantly Catholic, those who have left the church since 1990 have shifted more than expected toward no religious affiliation.
The study noted that just as in the general U.S. population, Latinos became less identified with Christianity between 1990 and 2008, down from 91 percent to 82 percent. Those who said they identify with no faith grew from 6 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2008.
While some religions, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists, nearly tripled in the number of Latino adherents, and Pentecostals doubled in number, the percentage of Latinos who belong to those religions declined.
Referring to the percentage of Latinos who belong to a particular religion as “market share,” the study noted that the ratio of Catholics to other Christians remained the same over the 18-year period.
“The widespread assumption that non-Catholic Christian traditions are gaining ground among U.S. Latinos is not supported,” it said. “Obviously this ratio is affected by the preferences of new immigrants, who remain overwhelmingly Catholic. Other non-Christian religions, comprising a wide range of groups, also lost market share.”
The analysis of the American Religious Identification Survey of 2008 echoes many of the findings of previous studies of Latinos and their faith, such as that the influx of Latino immigrants continues to be a factor in maintaining the size of the Catholic population in the United States.
“Over the 18-year period, the influx of 9 million Latino Catholics accounted for most of the 11 million additions to the U.S. Catholic population and, as a result, Latinos comprised 32 percent of all U.S. Catholics in 2008 compared to 20 percent in 1990,” it said. Among Latinos, 66 percent in 1990 said they were Catholic, compared to 60 percent in 2008.
