For the first time, Generation Z Catholics outnumber Protestants in the United States For the first time, Generation Z Catholics outnumber Protestants in the United States

What is clear is that Generation Z is rewriting assumptions long taken for granted in religious sociology.

January 12, 2026 17:41 Tim Daniels

 (ZENIT News / Washington, 01.12.2026).- 

For the first time in modern American history, a generational line has been crossed that few demographers expected to see. Among Generation Z—those born from the mid-1990s onward—Catholics now outnumber Protestants. The shift is modest in raw percentages, but profound in its symbolic and historical implications for a country long defined by Protestant majorities.

According to data from the 2023 Cooperative Election Study (CES), 21 percent of Gen Z adults identify as Catholic, compared with 19 percent who describe themselves as Protestant. It is a narrow margin, but enough to invert a demographic pattern that dominated the United States for centuries. In no previous generation—not among Baby Boomers, not among Generation X, not even among Millennials—had Catholic identification surpassed Protestant affiliation.

For the first time, Generation Z Catholics outnumber Protestants in the United States | ZENIT - English