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Over the last few months, a diocesan survey of Hispanic / Latino Ministry and Hispanics / Latinos in ministry has been conducted, with a 100% response rate. Thank you to all those who responded to our request for information! Diocesan and regional reports have been prepared to share this information, together with insights from the Research Team’s analysis of Census and other survey data. All of these reports are now available on the website here. The top ten highlights from this portion of the V Encuentro consultation are as follows:

  • There are 4,473 parishes with services directed to Hispanics—most frequently one or more Masses in Spanish—an increase of 105 from the 2013 CARA study.
  • On an average weekend, about 2.7 million people attend the 7,900 weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly Masses in Spanish in the U.S.—about 340 per Mass.
  • About 9% of Hispanic / Latino Catholics attend Mass in Spanish each weekend; over 80% of Hispanic Catholics speak at least some Spanish at home.
  • The V Encuentro statistical model suggests that 52.4% of Hispanics were Catholic in 2016, for a total of 30.06 million—up from 29.7 million in 2010 according to CARA. The overall Hispanic population had increased by 6.9 million.
  • In 2016, about 61% of immigrant Hispanics / Latinos were Catholic, as were 50% of the second generation and 43% of the third and higher generations.
  • About 40% of all Catholics in the U.S. are Hispanic; 50% of Catholics ages 14 to 29 are Hispanic; and 55% of Catholics under 14 are Hispanic.
  • There were about 303,500 Hispanic / Latino children enrolled in Catholic elementary and high schools (K-12) this year, up from about 290,000 in 2009. 17.2% of K-8 and 14.6% of 9-12 Catholic school students this year are Hispanic.
  • Dioceses reported 2,705 active Hispanic priests and 280 inactive/retired Hispanic priests, 76% of whom were foreign-born.
  • In the U.S. today, there are about 2,000 Catholics for every priest; 6,000 immigrant Hispanic Catholics for every immigrant Hispanic priest; and 23,000 U.S.-born Hispanic Catholics for every U.S.-born Hispanic priest.
  • Dioceses reported about 2,300 Hispanic religious (men and women), 2,600 Hispanic Deacons, and 5,800 Hispanic lay ecclesial ministers. Twenty dioceses containing 26% of the Hispanic Catholic population did not report LEMs.

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