Over the last decade, Catholicism has continued to decline sharply in Latin America, as the share of adults who are religiously unaffiliated rises, according to a new survey looking at religiosity in six countries.
The survey, fielded in 2024 and released Wednesday (Jan. 21) by the Pew Research Center, studied Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru and found declining rates of Catholicism in every country. Colombia saw the largest drop, where 6 in 10 (60%) adults identified as Catholic in 2024 compared with 8 in 10 (79%) in the 2013-2014 survey.
The smallest drop in Catholicism was in Peru — the country where Pope Leo served for more than two decades before being elected pope — with a 9-point decrease over the decade between surveys (76% in 2013-2014 down to 67% in 2024).
Meanwhile, the survey found the religiously unaffiliated nearly doubled or saw even larger gains in every country. In Brazil, where the gains were the smallest, the unaffiliated grew from 8% to 15% of the population. In Peru, 12% of adults identified as religiously unaffiliated in 2024, up from just 4% a decade ago.
But religiously unaffiliated gains were largest in Chile and Colombia. A third of Chileans identified as religiously unaffiliated in the most recent Pew survey, more than double the 16% of Chileans who said the same a decade ago, reflecting a 17-point gain. Colombia also saw a 17-point gain in the religiously unaffiliated. In 2024, nearly a quarter (23%) said they were religiously unaffiliated, almost quadrupling the 6% who said they were unaffiliated in the survey a decade earlier.
Once at 95%, Catholicism in both Brazil and Chile has declined to 46%, while Argentina saw a decrease from 97% to 58%. Mexico and Peru, respectively, fell from 91% and 95% to 67%.
Between 1900 and 1970, Catholicism in Colombia rose from 80% to 95%, and has since receded to 60%.
Pew said that “religious switching” — where adults raised in a faith tradition no longer identify with it — is “one reason for the decline of Catholicism and growth of religiously unaffiliated populations in Latin America.”
And there’s this:
The report said that “belief in God” among Latin Americans is “widespread,” with “around nine-in-ten or more adults surveyed in each country saying they believe in God.”
That belief has held fairly steady over the past decade, and even majorities of religiously unaffiliated adults indicate they share it, Pew said.
Religion “matters deeply to many people in the region,” said Pew, which found that about half or more of those surveyed in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru regard it as “very important” in their lives.
Check out the full Pew survey here.
