Racial Reconciliation - Hispanic Americans
- Feb 6, 2006 - comment
- Hispanics are more than twice as likely as are whites to be searching for meaning and purpose in life (60 percent to 28 percent, respectively). (2001)
- Hispanics (32 percent) are just as likely as are whites (37 percent) to call themselves a “born again Christian”, however both groups are less likely than are African Americans (57 percent). (2001)
- Hispanics (42 percent) are less likely than African Americans (51 percent) but more likely than whites (26 percent) to maintain that they personally struggle with finances. (2001)
- Hispanics are the ethnic group most likely to say that they are “stressed out.” Compared to 32 percent of African Americans and 32 percent of whites, 44 percent of Hispanics say that they are “stressed out.” (2001)
“Hispanics,” Barna by Topic, http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=24 [Accessed October 4, 2005]
“In July 2001, U.S. Census data showed that Hispanics surpassed African Americans as the largest minority group in the United States. Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population today and the Census Bureau predicts that, based on continued immigration and birth rates, they will constitute 25 percent by 2050. An aggregate of 2004 and 2005 data from Gallup’s annual Minority Relations poll allows a close look at the major religious and political affiliations of Hispanic Americans.
“Forty-nine percent of Hispanics say they attend services once a week or almost every week and another 17 percent attend at least once a month. One-third of Hispanics (32 percent) say they seldom or never attend church. Looking at an aggregate from surveys conducted in 2004, 44 percent of Americans say they attend once a week or almost every week and 10 percent attend at least once a month; 41 percent say they seldom or never attend. Hispanics are slightly less likely than the overall population to say they seldom or never attend.
“Nearly two-thirds of Hispanics (63 percent) self-identify as Catholic, while 16 percent say they are Protestant. Another 10 percent align with other Christian faiths; just 6 percent say they have no religious affiliation at all. About 9 in 10 Hispanics identify with a Christian religion, which is slightly higher than the 84 percent of Americans in general.
“‘Although nearly all Hispanics arrive in this country as Catholics, so many more options are available to them when they get to the United States,’ says the Rev. Javier Diaz-Munoz, a priest who works closely with the Hispanic community in New Jersey. ‘Protestant churches, especially, are very active here. They offer a lot of social services to Hispanics.’”
Excerpted from Linda Lyons, Where Do Hispanic Americans Stand on Religion, Politics? (Gallup Poll), July 19, 2005 [Subscription required]
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