Catholic immigration demographics

Friday, Nov. 21, 2025

 

Across the U.S., Christians account for approximately 80 percent of all of those at risk of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, with the single largest group of affected Christians being Catholics, according to a joint Catholic-Evangelical report published by the USCCB and World Relief.

The report found one in six Catholics (18 percent) are either vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is.

According to a Pew Research Center data analysis from March 2025, more than four out of 10 Catholics in the U.S. are immigrants (29 percent) or the children of immigrants (14 percent). But eight out of 10 Hispanic Catholics are either born outside the United States (58 percent) or are the children of an immigrant (22 percent), while 92 percent of Asian Catholics are either immigrants (78 percent) or are the children of an immigrant (14 percent).

Only 15 percent of white Catholics share this immigrant experience: just 6 percent were born outside the U.S., with another 9 percent born in the U.S. to at least one immigrant parent.

Pew also noted Hispanic and Asian Catholics – populations closely related to the first generation immigrant experience – constitute the more youthful part of the Church: 59 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 46 percent of Asian Catholics are under 50. Less than 3 in 10 white Catholics (29 percent) are under 50.

Pew reported there are 53 million Catholic adults in the U.S.: 54 percent white, 36 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian and 2 percent Black.