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Queries for Catholic related topics on Google have dropped significantly in volume between 2004 and 2011.
The significant drop is disturbing however and while we should be concerned, it’s not a cause for panic, according Mark Gray a research associate at the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Georgetown.
Gray created graphs from Google search statistics which used the term “Catholic” in them, such as “Catholic school,” “Catholic Church,” and “Catholic Charities.” The graphs show a continued linear decline downward since 2004. The search volume dipped below average in 2007.
“Americans are significantly less likely to search for anything Catholic than they were seven years ago,” he said at Nineteen Sixty-four, the research blog of CARA.
Declines are also evident in the U.K., Australia, Germany, Italy and Brazil.
Gray said his graphs represent the behavior of “millions of people (Catholic and non-Catholic) online.”
“These aren’t responses to polls or attitudes expressed in a focus group. These are real world observations. People are doing less of something and when that thing is ‘Catholic’ online we should wonder what the future is for Catholic news media.”
Analysis of the Google search patterns for queries about the NFL, the Fox television show “American Idol” show no generalized downturn. Further context, comparing Catholic to Facebook was “no competition” he added.
One if four Americans is “Catholic”.
Gray said, “Catholics are more likely to say they have visited a site for their parish or a Catholic school than any other religious or spiritual site and even then it’s only about 5% of all adults for a six month period. Only a few Catholic websites (e.g., websites for the Vatican and the U.S. bishops) typically make it into the top 4,000 most visited in the United States.”
Catholic search terms hit a low point each summer and peak in the weeks of Ash Wednesday and Christmas.
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