A surge of converts to Catholicism has been in the news lately, but what do the numbers really tell us? Pew Research Center recently released the results of a comprehensive study of converts to Catholicism in the U.S. The numbers help put recent trends in perspective and provide some insight into the religious landscape in the United States.
How many converts are there?
The study reports that converts to Catholicism account for 1.5% of U.S. adults. Out of approximately 267 million American adults, that’s about 4 million people who converted, at some point in their life, to Catholicism.
Converts make up about 8% of total American Catholics in the United States today; the other 92% are “cradle Catholics,” people born into the Catholic faith.
To further put this number into perspective, it's worth noting that the number of converts alone is equal to the total number of people in some other prominent religious denominations. For example, Catholic converts are about equal to the total number of U.S. Episcopalians.
The number of converts is not a net gain
To provide an apples-to-apples comparison of data, the Pew Research Center asks people whether they have joined or left a religious denomination in the course of their lifetime. While the study was conducted recently, it records the conversions -- and reasons for converting -- that have occurred over many decades.
According to the study, many more people have left Catholicism than have joined it, with a ratio of 8.4 people leaving for every one person who has converted. The study also found that the majority of people who switch religions do so before the age of 30.
Where do converts come from?
Converts come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, but the vast majority (59%) come from Protestantism. Another 9% come from other self-identified Christian origins, such as Orthodoxy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). Twenty-two percent of converts report that they had no religious affiliation before converting to Catholicism.
When asked in an open-ended way why they wanted to convert, almost half of respondents said that they had a spouse who was Catholic or they wanted to get married in the Church.
Converts in the Church today
A Pew Research Center study conducted in 2025 found that converts attend Mass more frequently than cradle Catholics. Thirty eight percent of converts say they attend at least weekly, with 28% of cradle Catholics saying the same. The same study found that converts report praying daily at a slightly higher rate, 56% to 51% of cradle Catholics.
The 2023-24 study found that 58% of converts and 34% of cradle Catholics receive the Eucharist each time they attend Mass. Converts and cradle Catholics have similarly low percentages of people who go to Confession at least annually, 29% and 23% respectively.
The study also surveyed political affiliation, with a majority of both cradle Catholics (60%) and converts (52%) voting Republican.
Continuing conversions
With many dioceses recording high numbers of conversions over the Easter season in 2026, the conversion landscape continues to change. The Pew Research Center’s work grounds this hopeful news in the larger picture of Catholic converts in the United States.
