Report
CARA Report: Cultural Diversity in the Catholic Church in the United States (2014)
CARA Report: Cultural Diversity in the Catholic Church in the United States1 by Mark Gray, Mary Gautier, and Thomas Gaunt, SJ, June 2014
In February 2013 The Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University to estimate the size and distribution of Black or African American, Asian American or Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian or Alaskan Native Catholic populations in the United States, as well as the locations of Catholic parishes known to serve these communities.
CARA utilized county-level U.S. Census data for 2010 to estimate total population sizes for these racial and ethnic groups of any religious affiliation. These data were then aggregated within the boundaries of U.S. Catholic dioceses as well as USCCB regions (I through XIV). Survey-based estimates for the Catholic affiliation percentage for each racial and ethnic group were then collected from recent and publicly available surveys. Where possible, depending on sample sizes, CARA also estimated these percentages for each group within USCCB regions and U.S. Census regions. These estimates were averaged to create a national as well as specific regional Catholic percentage estimators for each group studied (available in the Appendix). These estimators were then applied to the population totals within each county, diocese, and region to produce a comprehensive set of Catholic population estimates by race and ethnicity.
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1 This is a revised edition of the report released in October 2013. It corrects for errors in numeric sorting by USCCB region Roman numeral. It removes any double-counting of Asian population totals for those who specify two or more Asian sub-group identities. It also includes additional Catholic affiliation estimators for “outlier” Catholic areas where regional affiliation percentages are too low or too high (e.g., Archdiocese of New Orleans).