Hispanics becoming less Catholic

From the Washington Post: 

A new poll finds that major changes in religious affiliation are underway among Hispanic Americans, who are becoming less Catholic and more evangelical and unaffiliated.

The poll released Friday by the Public Religion Research Institute shows 53 percent of Hispanics identify as Catholic, compared with 69 percent who say they were raised Catholic as children. Thirteen percent call themselves evangelical today, compared with 7 percent raised evangelical. Twelve percent say they have no religious affiliation, compared with 5 percent who said they were raised that way.

From the poll: 

When comparing today’s Hispanic adults to their childhood religious affiliations, Catholic affiliation drops by 16 percentage points (from 69% to 53%). Evangelical Protestant affiliation has increased by 6percentage points (from 7% to 13%), while the percentage of those claiming no religious affiliation has increased by 7 percentage points (from 5% to 12%).

Hispanics generally have a more favorable impression of the current head of the Catholic Church than of the Church itself, although this favorability gap is smaller among Catholics. Nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Hispanics have a favorable view of Pope Francis, compared to 54% who have a favorable view of the Catholic Church. Among Catholics, more than 8-in-10 (84%) have a favorable view of the current pope, and roughly as many (81%) have a favorable view of the Catholic Church.

Read the complete survey.