A trend little seen in the rest of the world is growing in the most Catholic region on the planet, with the population of Latin America continuing to have faith, but not identifying with religious institutions.
In a region known for its turbulent changes, one idea has remained remarkably consistent for centuries: Latin America is Catholic.
The region’s transformation into a Catholic bastion over 500 years seemed to reach its peak in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected the first Latin American Pope. Once a missionary outpost, Latin America is now the heart of the Catholic Church. Hostel more than 575 million faithful – more than 40% of all Catholics in the world. The next largest regions are Europe and Africa, each with 20% of the world’s Catholics.
However, under this Catholic predominance, the region’s religious panorama is changing.
Firstly, Protestant and Pentecostal groups experienced significant growth. In 1970, only 4% of Latin Americans identified as Protestant; in 2014, this percentage had rose to almost 20%.
But even as the number of Protestants increased, another trend was silently gaining ground: a growing share of Latin Americans completely abandon institutional faith. And religious decline in the region presents a surprising difference from patterns observed elsewhere. Although fewer Latin Americans identify with a religion or attend worship services, personal faith remains strong.
Religious decline
In 2014, 8% of Latin Americans said not have any religion. This number is double the percentage of people who were raised without religion, indicating that the growth is recent and originates from people who abandoned the church in adulthood.
However, no comprehensive study of religious change in Latin America since then has existed. New research, published in September 2025, is based on two decades of survey data to more than 220,000 respondents in 17 Latin American countries. This data comes from AmericasBarometer, a large regional survey conducted every two years by Vanderbilt University that focuses on democracy, governance and other social issues. By asking the same questions about religion across countries and over time, it offers an exceptionally clear view of changing patterns.
In general, the number of Latin Americans who declared that they did not have any religious affiliation increased from 7% in 2004 to more than 18% in 2023. The share of people who declare that they have no religious affiliation grew in 15 of the 17 countries and more than doubled in seven.
On average, 21% of people in South America say they have no religious affiliation, compared to 13% in Mexico and Central America. Uruguay, Chile and Argentina are the three least religious countries in the region. Guatemala, Peru and Paraguay are the most traditionally religious, with less than 9% identifying as unaffiliated.
Another question that researchers often use to measure religious decline is the how often people go to church. From 2008 to 2023, the share of Latin Americans who attended church at least once a month decreased from 67% to 60%. The percentage of those who never attend, in turn, grew from 18% to 25%.
The generational pattern is striking. Among people born in the 1940s, just over half say they attend church regularly. Each subsequent generation presents a steeper declinereaching just 35% for those born in the 1990s. Religious affiliation shows a similar trajectory – each generation is less affiliated than the previous one.
Personal religiosity
However, a new one also examined a less-used measure of religiosity – one that tells a different story.
That measure is “religious importance”: how important people say religion is in their everyday lives. We can think of this as “personal” religiosityas opposed to the “institutional” religiosity linked to congregations and formal denominations.
Like church attendance, general religious importance is high in Latin America. In 2010, approximately 85% of Latin Americans from the 17 countries whose data were analyzed stated that religion was important in their daily lives. Sixty percent said “a lot” and 25% said “a little.”
In 2023, the group that considered religion “somewhat important” decreased to 19%, while the group that considered it “very important” grew to 64%. The personal importance of religion was increasing, even as religious affiliation and church attendance fell.
The importance of religion shows the same generational pattern as religious affiliation and church attendance: older people tend to report higher levels than younger people. In 2023, 68% of people born in the 1970s said religion was “very important,” compared to 60% of those born in the 1990s.
However, when we compare people of the same age, the pattern is reversed. At age 30, 55% of those born in the 1970s rated religion as very important. Compare that to 59% among Latin Americans born in the 1980s and 62% among those born in the 1990s. If this trend continues, younger generations may eventually demonstrate a greater personal religious commitment than previous generations.
Affiliation versus belief
What we are seeing in Latin America is a fragmented pattern of religious decline. The authority of religious institutions is declining – fewer people claim a faith; fewer people attend services. But personal belief is not diminishing. THE importance of religion remains stableand even grows.
This pattern is quite different from that observed in Europe and the United States, where institutional decline and personal belief tend to go hand in hand.
86% of people without religion in Latin America say they believe in God or a higher power. This compares with just 30% in Europe and 69% in the United States.
A considerable share of Latin Americans without religion also believes in angels, miracles and even that Jesus will return to Earth during their lives.
In other words, for many Latin Americans, abandoning a religious label or stopping attending church does not mean abandoning faith.
This peculiar pattern reflects the unique history and culture of Latin America. Since the colonial period, the region has been shaped by a mix of religious traditions. People often combine elements of indigenous beliefs, Catholic practices, and more recent Protestant movements, creating personal forms of faith that do not always fit perfectly into a single church or institution.
Because priests were often scarce in rural areas, Catholicism developed in many communities with little direct oversight from the Church. Domestic rituals, festivals of local saints, and lay leaders helped shape religious life in more independent ways.
This reality challenges the way scholars generally measure religious change. Traditional frameworks for measuring religious decline, developed from Western European data, rely heavily on religious affiliation and church attendance. But this approach ignores vibrant religiosity outside formal structures—and can lead scholars to the wrong conclusions.
In short, Latin America reminds us that faith can thrive even when institutions fall apart.
