In 2026, we are finally at a point where we can confidently report survey findings about the youngest (and oldest) American Catholic adult generations. To do so we use the Pew Research Center’s generational year definitions. The youngest, Gen-Z were born between 1997 and 2012, however we can only “see” those born 1997 to 2006 in current adult survey data (i.e., ages 18 and older). It’s with these youngest Catholics that there seems to be the greatest interest in data. We heard a lot in 2025 about a possible religious revival and about Catholics outnumbering Protestants in this younger demographic. What’s in the numbers?
There is one survey, the Comparative Election Study (CES) in 2023, where young Catholics (Millennials and Gen-Z) appeared to match or eclipse the number of Protestants in the population youngest two generations. However, as shown below (click to enlarge figure), the preceding and subsequent survey data for 2024 do not agree with 2023. It is also the case that we don’t see any similar jump in Catholic affiliation among the two youngest generations in the General Social Survey (GSS). More than likely, the 2023 CES data were a margin of error fluctuation. Surveys are always blurry images rather than picture portraits. In older Generations, Catholics trail Protestants in all observations of the CES and GSS since 1972.
Turning to religious practice in 2024, 36% of adult Catholics attended Mass at least once a month, 65% prayed at least once a week, and 76% said their religion is “somewhat” or “very” important to them. The frequency of Mass attendance at least once a month among the youngest Gen-Z Catholics was higher than it was for older Gen-X or Baby Boomer Catholics (39% compared to 30% and 35%, respectively). However, Gen-Z were less likely than older Catholics to pray at least weekly and to say that their religion is “somewhat” or “very” important to them.
Retention rates measure the percentage of adults who were raised Catholic who remain Catholics when surveyed as adults. Among Baby Boomers, retention ranged from 68% to 62% between 2014 and 2024. Generation-X similarly varied from a high of 70% to a low of 60%. The trend for Millennials mirrors that of Gen-X with a slightly lower percentage (ranging from 64% to 53%). Gen-Z has only been visible in large enough numbers in the GSS since 2021, where 67% retention is evident—higher than any other generation at the time. After 2021, retention has fallen each year to 52% in 2024. Thus, only about half of Gen-Z who are raised as Catholic remain Catholic as adults.
The share of U.S. adults who converted to Catholicism after the age of 16 varies slightly by generation. Typically, this varies between 2% and 3%. As the next figure shows, this is typical for each generation except Gen-Z. The percentage of Gen-Z adults converting to Catholicism in 2021 and 2022 was 0.4% and 0.3% respectively. In 2024, we did see this increase to 2.9%, which is consistent with other generations in recent years. The reason Gen-Z conversion rates may have been low in 2021 and 2022 is that this is a young generation so there has been less time for this cohort to make a religious switch and this period overlaps with the COVID-19 pandemic which may have prevented those wishing to switch from enrolling in OCIA classes. Nonetheless, a 2.9% convert percentage in 2024 is not an outlier from other generations in recent years and brings Gen-Z in line with prevailing patterns (We recently covered the available statistics about adult entries more broadly in a previous post).
One aspect where significant change is evident across generations is racial and ethnic diversity. Forty-percent of Gen-Z Catholics self-identify their race and/or ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino compared to 18% of Baby Boomer Catholics. A minority of Gen-Z and Millennial Catholics self-identifies as non-Hispanic white. The number of Catholics who self-identify as something other than Hispanic or non-Hispanic white is also larger among Millennials and Gen-Z than older Catholics.
Overall, in 2024, adult Catholics were 33% Democrat, 24% Republican, and 43% independent, affiliated with some other political party, or were unsure of their party affiliation. Gen-Z Catholics were a bit more Democratic (36%) and a bit less Republican (19%). The most Republican segment of Catholics were Baby Boomers (25%) and Gen-X (26%). All generations were more likely to be Democrats than Republicans and all have a plurality who do not affiliate with either major party.
Party affiliation is only half of the story. Overall, Catholics tend to be more conservative than liberal when describing their political ideology. I have often described the median Catholic voter is a center-right Democrat and we can see the Catholic vote shift from Democrats to Republicans and back over time. Forty-one percent either describe themselves as very conservative, conservative, or somewhat conservative compared to the 25% who say they are very liberal, liberal, or somewhat liberal. Broken down by generation, there is a distinct pattern where we can see older Catholics being more conservative and younger Catholics less so. However, rather than liberals supplanting conservatives among younger Catholics it is more likely that they identify as middle of the road or not sure of their political ideology.
Turning to media use, among Catholics overall, 80% use social media daily and 67% watch television news. Fewer, 34% reads a daily newspaper and 34% listens to news radio daily. There are significant differences by generation for media use. Ninety-five percent of Gen-Z uses social media daily. Daily social media use decreases with each older generation from 87% of Millennials to 62% of Silent Generation Catholics. Only Silent Generation and Baby Boomer Catholics are more likely to use something other than social media daily and that is watching news on television (83% and 75%, respectively). Perhaps surprisingly, there is fairly consistent use of newspaper readership (including online) and listening to news on the radio across generation.
We next explore recent life events. Millennial Catholics are the most likely of any Catholic generation to marry and have had a child in the year before they were surveyed (6% and 8.8%, respectively). Gen-Z is the next most likely to have had a child during this time (4.3%) and Gen-X is the most likely to have married (4.7%). Divorce in the last year is uncommon among all generations with Millennials being the most likely to experience this in the year before being surveyed (1.5%).
While doctor exams are rarer for young Catholics than older Catholics, emergency rooms visits in a year are made by about one in five Catholics regardless of age. Silent Generation Catholics are the outlier with 29% having visited the emergency room in the year before being surveyed. Overall, about 3% of adult Catholics have been a victim of a crime in the year before they were surveyed. This occurred most frequently among Millennial Catholics (4.4%) and least often among Silent Generation Catholics (0.9%).
Looking a bit at economic indicators next that may be impacting younger Americans. Overall, 15% of adult Catholics have student debt, 13% wouldn’t be able to pay for an emergency expense of $400 right now, and 15% have earned money by taking jobs through a website or mobile app in the last year (i.e., gig work). Younger Catholics are more likely to have student debt with a third of Gen-Z reporting this. Gen-X Catholics indicate they would be least able to pay for an emergency expense right now (17%). The likelihood of doing gig work is highest among Millennials (25%) and Gen-Z (32%).
Finally, we examine self-reported health. Most Catholics, 83%, describe their health as good to excellent. Just 17% describe it as fair or poor. Fifty-nine percent of Gen-Z say their health us excellent or very good as do 53% of Millennial Catholics. By comparison (and not shown in the figure below), 48% of non-Catholic Gen-Z adults say their health is excellent or very good as 42% of Millennial non-Catholics (note: we’ve examined similar differences in a previous post). Even among the oldest generation of Catholics, the Silent Generation, 83%, describe their health as good to excellent.
To put all the analysis above in population figures we provide the size summary for each adult Catholic generation in 2024. These estimates are derived from averaging the generational sizes from the CES and GSS in 2024 and then applying the appropriate Census estimates for the 2024 adult population.
The largest generation of Catholics is the Baby Boomers, comprising 33% of adult Catholics (17.2 million people). This is followed by Gen-X, comprising 25% of adult Catholics (13.1 million people). Millennials are similar in size to Gen-X comprising 24% of adult Catholics (12.7 million people). As mentioned above, we can only see part of Gen-Z currently and in 2024 they comprised 13% of adult Catholics (7.1 million people). The Silent Generation makes up 5% of adult Catholics (2.8 million people). These total do not include Catholics younger than 18 or older than 94 in 2024.
For more about the data:
Methods for CES: https://tischcollege.tufts.edu/research-faculty/research-centers/cooperative-election-study/about-methodology
Methods for the GSS: https://gss.norc.org/get-documentation.html
