Georgetown University’s CARA Institute finds that about 25% of Catholics attend every week. Gallup finds that about 40% of Catholics attend mass in a given week. I would find either of those reasonable estimates of who I would call “real Catholics.” But by either of these measures, Christians in general are a small minority of the total U.S. population.
There are clse to as many Catholics as all Protestant, Baptist, Anglican, and marginal Christian or non-denominational churches combined (23-25%), but are outnumbered by “other Christians.”
You’re probably thinking that’s crazy, and it is in a way: Non-active Catholics continue to identify as Catholics, but former members of other Christian denominations quit identifying particularly with one denomination. And the majority of Americans no longer identify with any particular sect.
This means if you poll Catholic vs. Non-Catholic, or church-going Catholic vs. church-going Protestant, you’ll get fairly similar results. If, on the other hand poll Catholic vs. Protestant, you’ll find the Catholic vote is significantly further to the left.
Gallup finds that about 40% of Catholics attend mass in a given week.
Those are two very different statistics, and I would caution you not to confuse the two. The second says that on any given Sunday, any 40% of the total are attending mass. but it does not say the same 40% of the total are attending mass on every given Sunday. I do not recall at the moment where I got the 10% number I was using, but I have a feeling it was related to daily attendance, not weekly.
I would find either of those reasonable estimates of who I would call “real Catholics.” But by either of these measures, Christians in general are a small minority of the total U.S. population.
The question I raised, in response to mgist's earlier post, is whether there are really 75 million Catholics in the United States, or (recalculating with your 25% attendance number) whether there are actually 14 million "real" Catholics, with the other 61 million being "Catholics in name only" and nothing worth bragging about. And yes, I think we can make similar calculations using any Protestant denomination.
Ultimately, I think we would agree that "real" Christians in general are a small minority of the total U.S. population, and that recent elections have gone the way they have because the "real" Christians are being outvoted.
That isn't so, PEW gives the American population as 51.3% Protestant, and 23.9% Catholic, making up a total of the 75.2% of the 78.4% Christian total.
Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Orthodox making up the odd percent.