Laity And Parishes

There are 77.7 million1 Catholics in the United States2 (22% of the U.S. population), and nearly 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide.3

New Church Members 4

• Infant baptisms: 793,103
• Adult baptisms: 43,692
• Received into full communion: 76,588

Percentage of Ethnic/Racial Groups in the United States 5

Hispanic Catholics

• 50.5 million Hispanics live in the United States or 16% of thetotal U.S. population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.6
  
• Approximately 39% of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic. 7
  
• 64% of Hispanics who identify as Catholic attend church services regularly. 8
  
• 29 of the nation’s 272 active bishops are Hispanic. 9
  
• 15% of the priests ordained in 2012 are Hispanic.10
  
• More than 50% of all Catholics in the United States under age 25 are of Hispanic/Latino descent.11
  
• Since 1960, 71% of the U.S. Catholic population growth has been due to the growth in the number of Hispanics in the U.S. population overall. 12
  
• 68% of Hispanics in the U.S. consider themselves Roman Catholics. 13
  

African American Catholics

• There are 2.5 million African American14 Catholics.
  
• 798 parishes are predominantly African American, 75 of which have African American pastors. Approximately 225 priests, 400 sisters and 437 deacons are African American.15
  
• There are 16 (8 active) African American bishops.16
  

Native American Catholics

There are 4.1 million people who identify themselves as Native American; 493,615 of these Native Americans, or 12% of the total population, are considered Catholic. Currently, there is one Native American bishop in active service in the United States: Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap, of Philadelphia.17

Asian and Pacific Islander Catholics

• Asian and Pacific Islanders account for about 2.6% of all Catholics in the U.S. The U.S. Asian Pacific population with the largest number of Catholics is the Filipino community, followed by the Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and Korean communities.18
  
• 9% of ordinands in 2012 are of Asian or Pacific Islander background.19
  
• There are 6 Asian Pacific Islander bishops, one of whom is retired.20
  

Catholic Parishes

Total number of parishes21 in the U.S: 18,061. There also are 628 pastoral centers and 2,627 missions. And 87 new parishes opened their doors in 2011.

Did you know?

• The average number of registered households in U.S. parishes has grown to 1,168. A third of parishes now have more than 1,200 registered households.22
  
• The average number of weekend Masses per parish has increased from 3.5 in 2000 to 3.8 in 2010.23
• The average number of people attending Mass on a typical weekend at a Catholic parish is 1,110.24
  
• 40% of the increase in registered parishioners from 2005 to 2010 was among Hispanic Catholics.25
  
• 15% of parishes had 200 or fewer households in 2010.26
  
• 29% of parishes celebrate Mass at least once a month in a language other than English. 81% of those Masses are in Spanish. Overall, about 6% of Masses (weekday and weekend) are celebrated in Spanish in the United States.27
  
• At least 4,800 parishes or about 25% have Hispanic ministry.28
  
• 37% of parishes indicate that they have some special observance for particular cultural or ethnic groups in the parish.29
  
• The estimated number of lay ecclesial ministers (lay persons paid in ministry for at least 20 hours per week) in the United States is approximately 38,000 (2.1 per parish). 14% of these are vowed religious and 86% are other lay persons.30
  

Notes

1. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Study Documents the Supersizing of the U.S. Catholic Parish Life, p. 2, Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project. (accessed on 7/27/12) http://cara.georgetown.edu/NewsandPress/PressReleases/PR071511.pdf
2. The Official Catholic Directory 2012 (New Providence, N.J. P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 2012), p. 2095.
3. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Frequently Requested Catholic Church Statistics, http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html (accessed on 7/25/12.) 20
4. The Official Catholic Directory 2012, General Summary.
5. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 426.
6. U.S. Census Bureau, The Hispanic Population: 2010, 2010 Census Brief, p. 2, May 2011.
7. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 426.
8. Ibid.
9. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church, 2012.
10. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, The Class of 2012, Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, Executive Summary.
11. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 426.
12. 2012 Catholic Almanac, p. 426.
13. USCCB Office of Hispanic Affairs, U.S. Census Bureau, the Pew Hispanic Center (April 2010) www.usccb.org/hispanicaffairs
    
14. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 427.
15. Ibid.
16. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church, 2012.
17. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 429.
18. 2012 Catholic Almanac (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), p. 428.
19. Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate, The Class of 2012, Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, Executive Summary.
    
20. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church, 2012.
21. The Official Catholic Directory 2012, General Summary.
22. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Study Documents the Supersizing of the U.S. Catholic Parish Life, pp. 1-2, Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project. (accessed on 7/27/12) http://cara.georgetown.edu/NewsandPress/PressReleases/PR071511.pdf
    
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church, 2012.
29. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Study Documents the Supersizing of the U.S. Catholic Parish Life, p. 1-2.
    
30. Ibid.
31. 21