You are cordially invited… Young Adult Catholics and Marriage

With the recent approval of the Bishop’s Pastoral Letter on Marriage, “Marriage:  Life and Love in the Divine Plan,” attention is again being shifted to the current state of affairs in Catholic marriage.  The document calls for, among other things, marriage ministry that “accompanies and assists people at all stages of their journey: from the early years when young people begin to learn about committed relationships to the later years of married life, and even beyond them to grieving the loss of a spouse.”  But, what is the current young adult Catholic’s knowledge and attitude about marriage?

In spring of 2007, CARA conducted a poll for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to learn more about Catholics’:

• General familiarity and specific knowledge about Catholic teaching on marriage
• Consistency of respondents’ own views with various statements about marriage
• View of the acceptability of divorce, both generally and in specific circumstances
• General attitudes about marriage and divorce and influences on these attitudes

Using this poll, differences of attitudes and behaviors about marriage can be seen by respondents’ generation.  Interestingly, even though these generations are still coming of age, there significant differences between the Post-Vatican II Generation (born between 1961 and 1981, and more commonly called ‘Generation X’) and the Millennial Generation (born after 1981).

The youngest generation is more likely than their Post-Vatican II counterparts to say that marriage as a lifelong commitment and marriage as a calling from God are “very consistent” with their views.  Also – while 21% (1 in five) Post-Vatican II agree “somewhat or strongly” that “marriage is not necessary if a couple decides to have children,” only 12% (one in ten) Millennials agree “somewhat or strongly.”    

Interestingly, Millennials are more likely to say that marriage is “whatever two people want it to be” – 69% of Millennials “somewhat” or “strongly” agree, while 53% of Post Vatican-II “somewhat” or “strongly” agree.  These data suggest that Millennials understand marriage differently than the Post-Vatican II Generation.

The Post-Vatican II Generation and Millennial Generation even report looking for different attributes in a spouse.  Millennials are more likely than Post-Vatican II respondents to want a spouse as a soul-mate, to report being “very likely” to get married at some point, and to want to be married in the Catholic Church.  But – Millennials and Post-Vatican II are about as likely to say that it is “somewhat” or “very” important that their spouse be Catholic.  While 30% of single, never married Post-Vatican II respondents say it is “somewhat” or “very” important for their spouse to be Catholic, 31% of Millennials responded the same way.

But, what about divorce?  In their pastoral letter, the Bishops of the United States are particularly concerned about the divorce rate, saying, “…the incidence of divorce remains high. The social sanctions and legal barriers to ending one‘s marriage have all but disappeared, and the negative effects of divorce on children, families, and the community have become more apparent in recent decades.”  Millennial respondents are more likely than Post-Vatican II respondents to agree “somewhat” or “strongly” that couples don’t take marriage seriously enough when divorce is easily available.  They are only slightly more likely to agree that divorce because of financial trouble and because of falling out of love is not acceptable.

These differences may be a result of the spike in divorces during the Post-Vatican II Generation’s formative years.  When currently single, never married respondents who say that they are unlikely to be married are asked why, almost one in five Post-Vatican II respondents (19%) say it is because they witnessed a parent, other family member, or close friend in a troubled marriage and it has made them hesitant to marry (compared to less than one in ten Millennials, 7%).

It should be noted, however, that two in five Millennial respondents (43%) “somewhat” or “very much” believe that living with a partner before marriage decreases the risk of divorce (compared to 31% of Post-Vatican II).  On the subject of cohabitation, the Bishops find state that “Clearly, there is no substitute for the binding lifelong commitment of marriage, and by definition, there is certainly no way to ‘try it out.’”  They go on to argue that “at the heart of cohabitation lies a reluctance or refusal to make a public, permanent commitment. Young people need to develop the virtue required for sustaining such a lofty commitment.”

--By, Melissa A. Cidade, Director of CARA's Pastoral Assistance Surveys and Services (PASS)

Global Catholicism: Aggregating data to estimate the number of Catholics at the national level on a global scale

In a previous post, Catholic population data reported in the OCD were compared to survey-based estimates at the state-level. This is replicated here at the national-level for 70 countries where survey data are available. Survey estimates are compared to the Catholic Church’s official population reports in the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (ASE) 2005.

The surveys provide estimates of the percentage of adult respondents in two large international surveys who self-identify themselves as Catholic (see the previous post regarding the use of adult surveys to estimate total population). These surveys include the most recently released wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) for 2005 to 2008, the most recent wave of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) for 2002 to 2006 and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) for 2004 to 2006.

The survey-based estimates are then applied to total mid-year population estimates for each country in 2005 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data base (IDB). In cases where there are estimates from all three surveys an average of these are used. Although imperfect, these methods are the best available for providing global comparisons.

Overall, these surveys estimate that there were 769.4 million Catholics residing in the 70 countries in 2005 for which data are available.  In these same 70 countries, the Catholic Church had estimated that there were 883.7 million Catholics (79 percent of the Church’s estimate of all Catholics globally). Thus, the Church’s estimated population for these countries is 15% higher than the aggregated survey estimate.

However, as shown in the tables above, the surveys estimate 0.0% Catholic self-identity in some of the countries where Catholics are known to reside in significant numbers (e.g., there are Catholic parishes and parishioners). These include Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Thailand, and Turkey. The Church reports that a total of 25.3 million Catholics reside in these countries—mostly in India (18.1 million) and Indonesia (6.5 million). Catholics are estimated to make up less than 3% of the population in both of these very large population countries. If one removes these 25.3 million from the Catholic Church’s Catholic population total to reflect the survey estimates the Church’s total Catholic population is 11.6% higher than the survey population estimate (858.4 million compared to 769.4 million).

Based on the survey estimates, the Catholic Church is over-estimating Catholic population in Europe and the Americas to a similar degree (15% in Europe and 16% in the Americas).  The Church is likely under-estimating the Catholic population of Africa and the Middle East combined (-29%). In Brazil, the largest Catholic population country in the world (regardless of the estimation method), the surveys indicate the Church is over-estimating the number of Catholics residing there by 29 million.

Measuring Up: Aggregating data to estimate the number of Catholics at the state level

How many Catholics live in your state?

A recent CARA analysis of data from multiple sources indicates that in most states there may be more Catholics than the Catholic Church is aware of. 

Each year in The Official Catholic Directory (OCD), dioceses report a variety of statistics—including their estimates of the total Catholic population.  The 2009 OCD is intended to be representative of the “status of the Catholic Church as of January 1, 2009.” At CARA, we interpret these data to be reflective of totals in 2008, when these data are collected.

Recently some very large surveys regarding religious identification have been conducted which allow for population estimates at the state level. The first of these was conducted in 2007 by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey included interviews with a representative sample of 35,556 adults in the United States. The second source used here is American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) conducted by researchers at Trinity College in 2008.  This survey included interviews with a representative sample of 54,461 adults in the United States.  Surveys with such large sample sizes allow for state level estimates of religious identification that are not possible with a typical academic or media poll that may only interview 1,000 respondents nationally.

Both of these large surveys estimate the proportion of the adult population (age 18 and older) that self-identifies their religion as Catholic.  These surveys likely underestimate the Catholic percentage of the total population—including children—as Catholics in the United States are, on average, younger than the non-Catholics (and more likely to be of childbearing age) and Catholics have a higher fertility rate than non-Catholics (both of these demographic factors are related to immigration).  Thus, the percentage of the population under age 18 in the United States that is Catholic is likely greater than the percentage of the U.S. adult population that is Catholic. 

In addition to these surveys, estimates are available from the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB).  This organization produces county-level estimates for religious adherents of all ages that coincide with each U.S. Census. Adherents represent any members of the faith, regardless of attendance at services, confirmation, etc.  The most recent estimates from ASARB represent the year 2000. Due to the timing of this data collection, the ASARB estimates, in some cases, misrepresent Catholic population percentages due to changes that have occurred in the last nine years—primarily any significant Catholic mobility (moving from one state to another) and any significant Catholic immigration (Catholics coming to the United States from other countries).

Despite the methodological and timing differences between these four estimates of the Catholic population percentage (i.e. including the OCD), each is strongly correlated to all others at the state level (Pearson’s R >= .915).  

CARA has aggregated these Catholic population estimates by simply averaging them (Note: not all states have estimates from all four sources). This is represented as "Average" in the tables below. We use this average to estimate the total size of the Catholic population in each state based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates of state population size in 2008. This is represented by "Catholic Population Estimate" in the tables below (i.e., multiplying the "Average" by the "Total Population" and creating the estimates in the "Catholic Population Estimate" column. Note: the "Average" includes additional decimal places not shown in the table. Thus, multiplying the table figures for "Total Population" by "Average" will produce slightly different estimates of "Catholic Population Estimate" than what is shown in the table. The complete data are available upon request). 

Using this method, the total estimated size of the self-identified Catholic population (i.e., adults and children) in the United States in 2008 was approximately 70.5 million (by comparison the OCD estimated this to be 65.2 million for the 50 states and Washington D.C.).  This represents 23.3% of the total U.S. population of 303.2 million in that year.

The table below includes states where the Catholic population percentage estimated from the OCD is relatively consistent with estimates made from the surveys and ASARB. 

The next table includes states where the Catholic population percentage estimated from the OCD is either significantly underestimated or overestimated in comparison to the estimates made from the surveys and ASARB.  This table also includes those states where no OCD estimate is available due to diocesan boundaries (e.g., Arizona and New Mexico, Delaware and Maryland).

The outlier states where dioceses have likely underestimated the size of their Catholic population are: Mississippi, Florida, Maine, North Carolina, Tennessee.  In each of these states the size of the Catholic population is estimated to be more than 50% larger than what is reported in the OCD based on the most recent survey estimates. Florida in particular is estimated to have more than 1.4 million more Catholics than what is reported in the OCD (2,255,891 reported in the OCD compared to CARA's estimate of 3,729,817).

The only dramatic outlier state where dioceses have likely overestimated the size of their Catholic population is Nevada where the estimated size of the Catholic population is 25% smaller than what is reported in the OCD based on the most recent survey estimates.

Even the aggregated estimates shown above, for a variety of reasons, likely underestimate the Catholic population in general. As noted, ASARB is based on data collected in 2000 and the figures reported by dioceses in the OCD are often conservative and most consistent with ASARB estimates. The surveys by Pew and ARIS include only adults. Finally, one of the most difficult populations to survey and count in the United States are immigrants. Many recent immigrants to the United States have come from countries in Latin America and Asia that have large Catholic populations. Immigrants in general are known to be less likely to agree to be interviewed in surveys and may also be under-sampled due to the lack of a landline phone (i.e., mobile phone-only households). Researchers using Census Bureau surveys often make adjustments for this "undercount" (see Pew's, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States). To the degree that Catholic immigrants are missed in surveys, the Catholic population percentages estimated using these data are by definition underestimated.