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AmericasBarometer:
Topical Brief – March 25, 2013
The New Pope is from the Americas: How Catholic are Americans?
By Alejandro Díaz-Domínguez, ITAM and Mitchell Seligson, Vanderbilt University
F
or the first time in history, a Pope has
emerged from the Americas. The
election results came as a surprise to
many because even though half of the world’s
Catholics live in the Americas, only 29 percent
of cardinal electors in the 2013 conclave were
from that region. Yet, the new Pope comes
from a Latin American country: Argentina.
Figure 1. Catholics in the Americas, 2012
Paraguay
86.2%
Mexico
83.3%
Ecuador
80.4%
Venezuela
79.0%
Peru
77.7%
Bolivia
76.8%
Colombia
75.6%
Argentina
74.6%
Costa Rica
In the months to come, debates will revolve
around a myriad of expectations regarding the
possible impact that the new Pope, Francisco,
might have on the Catholic Church around the
world. An especially relevant piece of
information in which these debates are
embedded is the social base of any religion: the
size and composition of the faithful. Thus it is
important to know how many they are, how
they behave, and how much they care about
religion.
70.2%
Chile
66.4%
Brazil
61.8%
Panama
61.1%
Dom. Rep.
56.4%
Guatemala
55.9%
Haiti
52.5%
Honduras
52.1%
Nicaragua
50.1%
El Salvador
47.1%
Belize
39.9%
Canada
35.8%
Uruguay
35.0%
Suriname
23.9%
United States
22.9%
Trinidad & Tobago
21.9%
Guyana
According to the most recent
Barometer surveys carried out by
American Public Opinion Project
during the first half of 20121,
nationally representative samples
1
Americas
the Latin
(LAPOP)
in which
of voting
Funding for the 2010 round mainly came from the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Important sources of support were also the Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB), the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), and Vanderbilt University.
Prior issues in the Insights series can be found at:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights.php. The data
on which they are based can be found at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/survey-data.php.
6.5%
Jamaica
3.2%
0
20
40
60
80
100
% of Catholic Respondents
95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effects Based)
Source: © AmericasBarometer by LAPOP
aged adults were conducted in 26 countries of
the Americas, respondents were asked about
their religion. The results regarding the percent
of Catholic respondents are shown in Figure 1.2
The question wording (q3c) reads: “What is your religion,
if any?” Response categories include a vast classification of
religions in the Americas, in which Catholics are coded (1).
2
© 2013, Latin American Public Opinion Project
www.AmericasBarometer.org
The traditional overwhelmingly Catholic
countries (at the national level) score at the top,
such as Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela,
Peru and Colombia, whereas practically all the
English speaking countries score near the
bottom: Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and
Tobago, the US, and Suriname. It is noteworthy
that more than three quarters of Argentineans,
the Pope’s fellow countrymen and women,
report identifying as Catholic, a figure that
sharply contrasts with specific religious
behaviors as we will show in the following
graphs.
Figure 2. Catholic Attendance in the Americas,
2012
Guatemala
72.6%
Haiti
70.2%
El Salvador
64.7%
Honduras
60.4%
Nicaragua
58.9%
Guyana
57.1%
Colombia
56.3%
Belize
56.2%
Bolivia
55.9%
Costa Rica
54.3%
Dom. Rep.
54.2%
Brazil
Church attendance can indicate how deeply felt
religious identification is in behavioral terms.
The newly elected Pope comes from a country
in which, as we have shown, most people are
Catholic, but as we show here, few actually
attend Church on a regular level. Levels of
church attendance among Catholics across the
Americas vary sharply from country to
country, as shown in Figure 2.3
53.9%
Ecuador
52.2%
Panama
51.9%
Mexico
51.7%
Jamaica
51.4%
Paraguay
50.8%
Trinidad & Tobago
49.6%
Peru
46.2%
Venezuela
37.0%
Chile
29.2%
Argentina
28.0%
Uruguay
16.8%
0
20
40
60
80
Church Attendance
Central American Catholics are likely to attend
mass almost every week, whereas Catholics
from the three well-known religiously liberal
South American nations, Chile, Uruguay and
Argentina go to mass less than once a month on
average (the respondents in the US and Canada
were not asked this question).
95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effects Based)
Source: © AmericasBarometer by LAPOP
Another important religious attitude refers to
the link between parishioners and their
communities, giving us a measure of “religious
social capital,” such as levels of attendance in
religious groups, as shown in Figure 3.4
The question wording (q5a) reads: “How often do you
attend religious services?”. Response categories are more
than once per week, once per week, once a month, once or
twice a year, and never or almost never.
3
The question wording (cp6) reads: “I am going to read a
list of groups and organizations. Please tell me if you
attend their meetings at least once a week, once or twice a
month, once or twice a year, or never: meetings of any
religious organization? Do you attend them...
4
© 2013, Latin American Public Opinion Project
www.AmericasBarometer.org
Figure 3. Catholic Attendance Religious Groups,
2012
Guatemala
67.3%
Honduras
62.0%
El Salvador
60.7%
Haiti
60.1%
Paraguay
55.2%
Dom. Rep.
54.7%
Nicaragua
50.3%
Brazil
49.6%
Colombia
49.5%
Jamaica
Church attendance however suggests a
different scenario, in which all things equal,
on average Catholics go to church less
frequently when compared to non-Catholics.
Similar behavior is reported for participation
in religious groups, as shown in Figure 5.
Overall, however, Catholics in the Americas
are more likely to score higher when talking
about how important religion is in their lives,
when compared to non-Catholics.
48.7%
Trinidad & Tobago
48.0%
Bolivia
46.6%
Mexico
These pieces of evidence mainly suggest a
spiritual continent, one now captivated with
the first Pope from the region.
42.0%
Peru
41.4%
Costa Rica
41.0%
Ecuador
40.8%
Belize
38.9%
Guyana
35.9%
Panama
35.6%
United States
33.6%
Venezuela
33.4%
Chile
23.9%
Argentina
Figure 4. Importance of Religion, Catholics,
2012.
22.3%
Canada
19.4%
Uruguay
14.9%
0
20
40
60
80
Religious Groups
95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effects Based)
Source: © AmericasBarometer by LAPOP
El Salvador
92.7%
Guatemala
90.4%
Dom. Rep.
87.0%
Nicaragua
86.3%
Panama
85.8%
Jamaica
85.2%
Paraguay
84.8%
Guyana
Once again, the Pope’s native Argentina scores
near the bottom of the list. Central American
Catholics score far higher.
How much Catholics in the Americas care
about religion also varies, as shown in Figure
4,5 in which levels of importance of religion in
the lives of the Catholic respondents is shown.
Interestingly, although the US is typically
considered as a very religious country, it ranks
low in comparison to countries in Latin
America and the Caribbean. Argentina is near
the bottom. Central American countries again
score at the top.
84.4%
Honduras
83.9%
Colombia
82.1%
Brazil
81.2%
Haiti
80.7%
Costa Rica
80.6%
Ecuador
79.7%
Bolivia
79.5%
Belize
79.2%
Peru
78.1%
Venezuela
73.3%
Trinidad & Tobago
72.1%
Mexico
70.6%
Chile
64.3%
Argentina
61.0%
United States
60.0%
Canada
45.8%
Uruguay
44.0%
0
20
40
60
80
100
Importance of Religion
95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effects Based)
Source: © AmericasBarometer by LAPOP
The question wording (q5b) reads: “Please, could you tell
me how important is religion in your life?”. Response
categories are very important, rather important, not very
important, and not at all important.
5
© 2013, Latin American Public Opinion Project
www.AmericasBarometer.org
Figure 5. Religious Attitudes in the Americas, 2012
Importance of Religion
Catholic
80.0
Other
73.9
Church Attendance
Catholic
50.5
Other
54.1
Religious Groups
Catholic
42.6
Other
45.2
0
20
40
60
80
95% Confidence Interval (Design-Effect Based)
Source: © AmericasBarometer by LAPOP
Alejandro Díaz-Domínguez is a doctoral candidate in
the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt
University, and Lecturer at the ITAM in Mexico City.
He can be reached at [email protected]
Dr. Mitchell A. Seligson is Director of the Latin
American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) and
Centennial Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt
University.
He
can
be
reached
at
[email protected].
Full results of the 2012 AmericasBarometer and the
AmericasBarometer 2012 comparative study can be
consulted on-line at www.LapopSurveys.org. The full
data set is available for on-line analysis or download
(in SPSS and Stata formats) at no cost.
© 2013, Latin American Public Opinion Project
www.AmericasBarometer.org