[GenXteacher]

There is some truth in this article. Twenty years ago you scarcely ever met someone who was Catholic down here. Then when the Yankees started coming, that changed- that, and the Mexicans....

[RnMomof7]

You are right... the numbers do not reflect “conversions “ but relocations..just as the number of liberal democrats is increasing.. My guess is that the catholics in the south are no more observant than the ones in the north ..

[Verginius Rufus]

Parts of Louisiana have been Catholic since before the US acquired the area in the Louisiana Purchase. Maryland had a Catholic minority from the beginnings of English colonization there, some of whom later settled in Kentucky. Some Irish and German Catholic immigrants ended up in the South in the mid-19th century (Edgefield, S.C., has a Catholic church that dates to before the War between the States). Of course outside a few areas the proportion of Catholics was very low.

The change isn't just in the last 20 years but goes back decades to the mass migration of people from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. More recently the influx of Hispanics into the South has increased the number of Catholics.