Content area

Abstract

The proportion of Hispanics who are Catholic remains unclear, partly because of varying survey methods and limited understanding of how these variations affect estimates of Hispanic religious identification. We compare 12 national surveys conducted since 1990. Language use strongly predicts religious identification among Hispanics-more strongly than other indicators of assimilation-and evidence suggests English-only interviewing inflates Protestant identification. Additionally, identifying Hispanics through ancestry questions may inflate Catholic identification. We also explore effects of sampling bias, noncoverage bias, and weighting on religious identification. Analyses suggest that poststratification weighting is advisable, particularly for language use. However, weighting cannot fully substitute for extensive coverage of subpopulations such as recent immigrants and Spanish-only speakers. We conclude that 70 percent or slightly more is a reasonable estimate of the proportion of adult Hispanics who are Catholic, and 20 percent a reasonable estimate of the proportion who are Protestant or other Christian. References. Adapted from the source document.

Details

Identifier / keyword
Title
What Proportion of Adult Hispanics Are Catholic? A Review of Survey Data and Methodology
Author
Perl, Paul 1 ; Greely, Jennifer Z; Gray, Mark M

 Apostolate (CARA), Washington, DC 
Correspondence author
Volume
45
Issue
3
Pages
419-436
Number of pages
18
Publication year
2006
Publisher
Blackwell Publishers, Malden MA
Country of publication
United States
ISSN
0021-8294
CODEN
JSSRBT
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Peer reviewed
Yes
Language of publication
English
Document type
Journal Article
Update
2007-06-04
Accession number
200711695
ProQuest document ID
61628388
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/what-proportion-adult-hispanics-are-catholic/docview/61628388/se-2?accountid=208611
Last updated
2016-09-28
Database
ProQuest One Academic