Young Americans of Spanish descent are turning away from the traditional Catholic faith of their parents and moving to Protestant churches, according to a Gallup poll.
“A majority of Hispanics in America continue to identify as Catholic, although the Catholic percentage among Hispanics appears to be decreasing and the youngest Hispanics in America today are less likely to be Catholic than those who are older,” Gallup said.
“Additionally, those Hispanics who are Catholic are much less religious than those who are Protestant.”
The poll had a sample of 28,607 Hispanics in all 50 US states.
Compared with a poll five years earlier, the number identifying themselves as Protestant remained largely the same (27 per cent in 2008 versus 28 per cent in 2012), but those identifying themselves as Catholic fell from 58 per cent to 54 per cent.
The poll showed that more than 60 per cent of Hispanic Protestants considered themselves very religious, while only 43 per cent of Hispanic Catholics could say the same.
Thirty-one per cent said they were not religious at all, consistent with national trends showcasing the rise of secularism in America.
Around 60 per cent of Hispanics aged 50 or more said that they belong to the Catholic Church. But Protestant churches had the greatest numbers of Hispanics aged 18-29, with 29 percent.
The Gallup report said: “Overall, the finding that younger Hispanics are proportionately more Protestant and that all Hispanics are becoming proportionately more Protestant over time suggest that the percentage of Hispanics who are Catholic may continue to slip in the years to come.”
Another research organisation, the Barna Group, found similar results in 2011.
“You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic Church,” commented the group’s founder, George Barna. “While many Hispanic immigrants come to the United States with ties to Catholicism, the research shows that many of them eventually connect with a Protestant church.”
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