Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time, November 16, 2025
I found an interesting article by Penn State sociologist Ryan Burge on the situation of Christianity in the United States. Professor Burge considers the changes in percentages of the US population for Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants and people with no religious affiliation, called "Nones", because when asked about their religion, they respond "None".
Please note that these statistics do NOT measure church attendance or parish registration, but the number of people who report that they belong or don't belong to various religious groups.
Catholics: In 1970, Catholics were 27% of the US population. In 2010, Catholics were still 27% of the US population. By 2024, Catholics declined to 22% of the US population, a rather dramatic decline in a little more than one decade.
Nones: In 1970 only 5.5% of the US population reported "no religion, while in 2024, 25.2% reported "no religion". This study and others also indicate that the number of "nones" was higher in 2019, indicating that at least for now, the number of "nones" isn't rising. However, since young people are far more likely to have no religion than older people, as people now over the age of 60 begin to die, the percentage of "nones" will surely rise, unless there is a massive turning toward religion.
American Mainline Protestants were at 30% of the population in 1970 ; they have experienced a staggering decline to 8.7% in 2024 and the decline show no sign of lessening. The religious group that was once dominant is now fading to insignificance.
However, Evangelical Protestants did not even exist as a group separate from Mainline Protestants until the mid 20th century. By 1970, Evangelicals were 18% of the population, rising to 29% by 1980, and declining again back to 18% by 2024.
Black Protestants, defined as belonging to historically black Protestant churches, have had a steady decline from 9% in 1970 to 4.4% in 2024.
My conclusions:
- We Catholics did not experience decline until 2010, when there was a significant drop. Our decline has not been as dramatic as that of other Christian groups.
- We Catholics often think that we are losing members to Protestant churches. Statistics do not bear out that this is a major trend. Mainline churches are virtually disappearing; Evangelicals have had a rapid rise and a rapid fall in percentage of the population.
- Evangelicals and Catholics are still the healthiest religious groups.
- Black Protestant churches have had been an immense force for good in the African American community. But these churches are declining also, slowly but surely.
- People leaving all religion has been the major American religious trend, from 5.5% of the population in 1970 to more than 25% now. For the past several years, the number and percentage of "Nones" is not rising, but "no religious affiliation" is definitely a present and future megatrend.
- Catholics are losing members to "no religion", but as a statistical trend, not to Protestant churches.
Religion in the USA is not dead, but declining, yet some people still find meaning in their Catholic faith. Statistics show that the number of people converting to Catholicism is rising slightly. Mass attendance has risen over the past few years since Covid. However, baptisms and Catholic weddings have fallen a lot indicating that the decline in the US Catholic community is likely to continue.
We can no longer count on people seeking life's meaning in faith. In the past Christian culture and symbols shaped our lives, and even people who were not inclined to be religious embraced churches for life's important celebrations: marriage, the birth of children and death. People were culturally drawn to church. However, today faith has to be witnessed and people are attracted only when they see faith having a positive impact. There is no more automatic embrace of faith by people.
It us useless to lament the present moment or to talk about how much better the past was. God did not give us the past. He chose to give us life now, in 2025. This is our time to serve and love God. We must pray and do our best to be Christ's disciples now.
