These figures for the United States. The Catholic Church continues to grow despise what is reported by the media. So for every person that lives the faith two come in.
Looks to me like the Catholic population is growing.
Catholic population (The Official Catholic Directory)
1965 - 45.6m
1975 - 48.7m
1985 - 52.3m
1995 - 57.4m
2000 - 59.9m
2005 - 64.8m
2013 - 66.8m
Good stats, and immigration does not totally account for those numbers. The current US population is around 312 Million. So Catholics are about 21% of the US population. Now, the Harris survey that just came out this month shows that today only 74% of Americans express a belief in God. 12% are Atheist and 14% or unsure [Agnostic]
The OP article says that just under 10% of Americans or 30 Million are former Catholics and 68% of Catholics who were born Catholic stay Catholic. 15% of those raised Catholic are Protestant and 14% are unaffiliated with any Church leaving 3% maybe going to non-Christian faith. So 32% of those born Catholic are now not Catholic and lets say those 14% unaffiliated are in that 26% that the Harris Poll indicates are atheist or Agnostic.
14 over 32 = 0.4375 and multiplying that by that 30 Million figure equals 13,125,000 people. If you take away the 15% that are prostestant and use 17/32, you get 53% and that equals 15,937,500 people. Now if you take 26% from the Harris Poll regarding Atheist and Agnostics and multiply that times 312 Million, you get 81,120,000 Americans that are Atheist or Agnostic. So former Catholics represent just over 16% or 20% [depending what you do with the 3% and how you measure it with the 15% of Catholics now Protestant and 14% unaffiliated] of those Americans who are now Atheist or Agnostic, not much different from the overall Catholic population. If you
In addition, what this analysis confirms is that there are 63 to 65 Million americans who are either atheist or agnostic that come from some other Faith Tradition besides Catholicism.
In summary, I go back to what I said earlier, the United States has become much more secular-Liberal in the last 20 or so years. Again, see Harris poll below
Catholic population ........US Population......Percentage
1965 - 45.6m...............194.30 million.......23.47%
1975 - 48.7m...............215.97 million.......22.55%
1985 - 52.3m...............237.92 million.......21,98%
1995 - 57.4m...............266.28 million.......22.50%
2000 - 59.9m...............282.16 million.......21.23%
2005 - 64.8m...............295.52 million.......21.93%
2013 - 66.8m...............316.16 million.......21.13%
Just going by total numbers gives a false impression of growth when there is none.
So doing a fair comparison with the TOTAL population of the US, it goes to show that the actual percentage of Catholics in this country is slowly DECLINING.
Points for trying but a fail overall.