Catholic Media Use

2023

The Catholic Media Renaissance?

This post is based on a national online survey of adult Catholics. CARA surveyed 1,019 self-identified Catholics from April 21 to May 5, 2023. The questions were available in English and Spanish. This survey was commissioned by a generous contribution from FAITH Catholic. The sample was provided by Qualtrics from actively managed, double-opt-in survey research panels. Self-identified Catholics were sampled randomly from these panels. Quotas and weighting for generation and ethnicity are used to ensure representativeness of the sample to the adult Catholic population relative to the most recent estimates in the General Social Survey (GSS). Respondents received incentives for their participation. Because the survey did not use probability-based sampling a traditional margin of error cannot be calculated. When opt-in panels are used a credibility interval is used. For this survey this is 3.5 percentage points. With this study we can make some cross-time comparisons to previous CARA surveys on media use. The first was conducted in November and December 2005 and included 1,260 self-identified Catholics using probability-based sampling. The second was conducted in May and June 2011 and included 1,239 respondents using probability-based sampling.

A lot has happened in the past few years to say the least. Perhaps we should begin this story by describing the current portrait of American Catholics in 2023. Here is what the U.S. adult Catholic population looks like in 2023:

• The largest share of Catholics resides in the South (29%). A quarter are in the Northeast, 24% in the West, and 22% in the Midwest

• 36% self-identify as Hispanic or Latino

• 53% are female and 47% male

• 39% are ages 55 and older, 26% 35 to 54, and 25% 18 to 34

• 55% are in a household that financially supports a parish

• One in ten are very involved in their parish other than attending Mass. Some 24% are somewhat involved, 24% involved a little, and 42% not involved at all