⛪ 80% of Latin Americans were Catholic just 30 years ago. Today, it's barely half.
Just over two months ago, the first Latin American pope – Pope Francis, from Argentina – passed away on Easter Monday. His death began the process to find the new head of the Vatican, the sovereign institution at the head of the Catholic Church.
His replacement, Pope Leo XIV, is not only the first pope to come from the United States (he’s a White Sox fan from Chicago), but by virtue of his 2015 naturalization the first pope to come from Peru as well. That was obviously cause for excitement for Peruvian Catholics, which make up roughly three-quarters of their country’s population.
Interestingly, despite Brazil being home to more Catholics than anywhere else in the world, no Brazilian cardinals were deemed frontrunners to succeed Francis. This comes as Catholicism declines in Brazil, while Evangelical Protestantism rises—a trend we see in much of Latin America, in fact.
While 80% of surveyed Latin Americans were Catholics 30 years ago, that number has since fallen to just over half. Catholicism, brought over by Spanish and Portuguese colonists as well as later immigrants from countries like Italy and Croatia, has seen its regional dominance erode in the face of growing numbers of Evangelicals.
While in 1995 only about one in twenty Latin Americans were Evangelical, today that figure has risen to roughly 25%. Evangelicals have become a major political force in countries like Brazil, where their growing numbers have translated to an increasingly conservative national legislature.
Central America is without a doubt the Evangelical stronghold, as the faith makes up at least a third of the population of each country in the subregion. A whopping 56% of Costa Ricans, for example, are Evangelical—and the rise has been dramatic, growing from just 14% less than a decade ago.
What does the religious mix look like for all countries?
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