Rise of Religious 'Nones' Affecting Hispanic Catholics Much More Than Protestants

Photo: Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel

New Gallup survey finds significant differences in religiosity among U.S. Latinos.

A new Gallup study finds significant differences not only in religiosity between Latino Protestants and Catholics in the United States, but in how much each group is losing adherents to the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated.

"Hispanics who are Protestant are significantly more likely to be very religious (60%) than those who are Catholic (43%)," notes Gallup in its analysis of more than 360,000 interviews. By comparison, 40 percent of all Americans are "very religious," according to Gallup.

The "substantial difference" in religiosity between Hispanic Protestants and Catholics, which holds across all age groups (see chart below), is double the difference between American Protestants and Catholics overall. Gallup found 51 percent of U.S. Protestants are very religious, compared to 43 percent of U.S. Catholics.

For this study, Gallup defined religiosity by whether or not participants said "religion is an important part of their daily life" and whether or not they "attend religious services every week or almost every week." Those agreeing to both statements were labeled "very religious," while those agreeing to one but not the other were labeled "moderately religious."

Gallup found 29 percent of Hispanic Protestants are moderately religious, compared to 39 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 29% of all Americans. Read more

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