Washington D.C., Mar 29, 2021 / 15:51 pm
The percentage of Catholics who say they are a “member” of a church has dropped by nearly 20 points since the year 2000, according to a new report by Gallup released on Monday.
Among respondents who said they were Catholic, only 58% actually said they were a member of a church. This figure is down 18 points from the 76% of Catholics who said they were a member of the Church, in a previous Gallup survey from 1998-2000.
In the past decade, Catholics saw a twice-as-steep decline in members than did Protestants, which saw a 9% decline in professed members of churches from 73% to 64%.
The report, based off a Gallup poll of more than 6,100 U.S. adults from 2018-2020, was published on Monday. Gallup says it asks Americans about their “religious attitudes and practices” twice per year.