Survey: Growing number of Latinos have no religious affiliation

A Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey in April 2012 shows Latinos have become increasingly less religious with newer generations. The survey explains while only about one in ten foreign-born Latinos are religiously unaffiliated (9 percent), twice as many native-born Latinos are unaffiliated (20 percent). The trend continues to increase in third-generation Latinos, with 24 percent saying they are unaffiliated.

Juhem Navarro-Rivera, a research associate at the Public Religion Research Institute, says his data shows 18 percent of young Latinos claim to have no religious affiliation, and he thinks that number will grow. “This has accelerated since 2008. The difference was not so large,” says Navarro-Rivera.

Catholicism still remains a cultural mark among the Latino culture with more than three in five Latinos claiming to be Catholic in the U.S. according to Pew Hispanic Center.