Vice President JD Vance is part of a relatively small group of Americans who converted to Catholicism as adults, according to new research released Friday by Pew Research Center.
The study found that Catholic converts make up about 1.5% of all U.S. adults, or roughly 4 million people nationwide. While a small share of the overall population, the number of converts is comparable to or larger than the membership of some major Protestant denominations, including Presbyterians and Episcopalians.
Pew researchers found that converts account for about 8% of all Catholics in the United States, while the remaining 92% were raised in the faith and continue to identify as Catholic. However, Catholicism continues to lose more adherents than it gains through religious switching. For every adult who converts to Catholicism, more than eight people who were raised Catholic no longer identify with the church.
Most converts come from other Christian traditions. Nearly 60% of Catholic converts said they were raised Protestant, while 9% came from other Christian backgrounds. Another 22% reported having no religious affiliation during childhood. Researchers found that marriage plays a significant role in many conversions, with nearly half of converts citing a Catholic spouse or a desire to marry in the church as the primary reason for joining.
The study also found that converts tend to be more active in church life than lifelong Catholics. About 38% of converts attend Mass at least weekly, compared to 28% of Catholics raised in the faith. Among registered voters, converts were also more likely to identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, with 60% describing themselves as Republican compared to 52% of cradle Catholics.
Pew noted that Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, is also among the roughly one-quarter of married Catholics in the United States whose spouse practices a different faith. His wife, Usha Vance, is Hindu.
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