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More than three-quarters of US Catholics viewed Pope Francis favorably in early 2025 and consistently gave him positive ratings across his papacy, a Pew Research Center survey discovered.
Pope Francis died April 21 after suffering a stroke, CatholicVote reported. He was 88 and had been pope for 12 years.
According to the survey, 78% of US Catholics said in February that they approved of Pope Francis, up three points from the previous year.
Pew added, “At least 80% of Catholics have expressed a favorable opinion of him in 10 of the 15 U.S. surveys in which we have asked about the pope since 2013.”
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His highest favorability rating was in February 2015, when 90% of Catholics approved of him. Pew also discovered that Catholic Democrats were much more likely to have approved of Pope Francis than Catholic Republicans (88% vs. 69%).
Pew additionally found that 20% of US adults — roughly 53 million individuals — consider themselves Catholic. More Catholics lean Republican than Democrat (53% vs. 43%), but Hispanic Catholics are more likely to align with the Democratic Party than white Catholics are.
The 2025 survey findings also revealed that the share of Hispanic Catholics in the US is on the rise, growing by seven points since 2007, while the share of white Catholics dropped 10 points in the same timeframe.
Catholics in the US are also likely (58%) to be 50 or more years old, while Hispanic and Asian demographics boast younger Catholics. Catholics are most likely to live in the South (29%), Northeast (26%), or West (25%), with 20% living in the Midwest.
