Canadian Catholics retain identity more than U.S. Catholics, but decline in practice is similar

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada — If someone is raised Catholic in the United States, there is a 75% chance that as an adult that person is no longer Catholic — or he or she is still a Catholic but hardly ever attends Mass.

Ryan Burge, an American political scientist who specializes in research about religion in American life, published these findings and others on his website titled Graphs About Religion.

Using information from the U.S. General Social Survey and the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, Burge found that in 2024 nearly three-quarters of Americans raised Catholic were either no longer Catholic, or they identified as Catholic but never or seldom attended Mass.

How does that compare with Canada?

Catholics in Canada retain more of their identity than Americans, but how they practice their faith is similar to what is happening in the U.S., said Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, who teaches sociology and studies religion in Canada at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

“Catholic identity is important and is retained by many in Canada, but the practice for many started disappearing in the 1990s,” she said. “This is definitely true in Quebec, but also, to a lesser extent, in…