Data: Latinobarómetro; Graphics: Thomas Oide/Axios
Catholicism is losing its grip in Latin America as the percentage of people who say they identify as Evangelical has risen, data shows.
Why it matters: The Catholic Church has historically influenced Latin American law and politics. Their decline is beginning to affect the politics of some countries, even as other faiths grow.
- For example, several countries have recently decriminalized abortion, recognized gay marriage, and championed transgender rights.
Using the numbers: Overall, the number of Latin Americans who said they had no religion increased by six percentage points from 2010 to 2020, according to the latest Latinobarómetro, the main regional annual survey.
- The percentage of people who identify themselves as Catholic has dropped from 70% in 2010 to 57% in 2020, according to Latinobarómetro.
Zoom in: Evangelical denominations have grown. In Brazil, the number of survey participants who identified as evangelical increased from 3% in 2000 to 18% in 2010 and 22% in 2020, the study shows. In Guatemala these figures rose from 19% to 34% to 41%.
- A growing evangelical caucus recently attempted to pass measures outright banning same-sex marriage and punishing abortion with up to 10 years in prison. The law was scrapped after the President said he would not sign it.
Between the lines: The shift in religious beliefs is partly due to young people having more faiths to choose from, Virginia Commonwealth University religious scholar Andrew Chesnut said at a conference in Mexico City yesterday.
- He added that Protestant and other Christian denominations have been strengthening their outreach, as have alternative forms of Spiritism, such as New Age movements that integrate Mesoamerican traditions.
- The Latinobarómetro study shows that trust in the Catholic Church is also at an all-time low, particularly in Argentina and Uruguay, where the church is accused of ignoring human rights abuses of previous dictatorships, and in Chile, where clergyman sexual abuse scandals have exploded in recent years.
- Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, even apologized for the “irreparable damage” caused by the latter cases after a visit to Chile in 2018.
Yes but: Catholicism remains socially rooted in Latin American culture.
- Many still celebrate Catholic traditions such as Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day).
zoom out: Latinos in the US have also been moving away from Catholicism in recent years, Pew Research Center data shows, while secularism is on the rise around the world.
Methodology: Latinobarómetro conducted 20,204 interviews in 18 countries between October 26, 2020 and April 26, 2021. The margin of error is 3% for country-specific data and 1% for the regional data.
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