America's new Catholics, by the numbers
America's convert surge is actually a rebound.
At Easter Vigil Saturday, thousands of people across the globe will be received into the Catholic Church: Those who have not been baptized before are formally converts, and will be baptized, confirmed, and will receive the Eucharist at the Mass. Those already baptized will be received into the fullness of the Church, usually with the initiation sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist.
The number of adults becoming Catholic has been on the decline in recent decades, as have other signs of active participation in the life of the Church — among them marriages (down 59% from 2000 to 2025), infant baptisms (down 53%), and even funerals (down 26%).
But a number of news stories and social media posts in recent weeks have trumpeted 2026 as a banner year for new Catholics. Is there a historic wave of converts entering the Church?
The Pillar looks at the numbers.
Each year the Official Catholic Directory collects data from diocesan figures throughout the US and publishes the number of Catholics who entered the Church within each diocese during the preceding year.
CARA — The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University — compiles those numbers and other statistics about the Catholic Church, and provides a useful repository of data about the life of the Church.
The Pillar compiled published data from CARA, and purchased some of the center’s in-depth diocesan-level files extracted from the past editions of the OCD, to see the trend in adults entering the Church.
From 2000 to 2020, the figures show a decreasing trend in the number of people becoming Catholics — from 173,674 adults baptized or received into full communion in 2000, to 70,796 entering the Church during the pandemic in 2020.
Since that low point in 2020, the number of adults becoming Catholic has increased from 74,972 in 2021 to 90,157 in 2024.
In fact, the 2024 numbers — reported in the 2025 OCD — show that the number of adults becoming Catholic that year returned to pre-pandemic levels, coming in above the 2019 total of 89,339.
This is a positive trend, but it still reflects a Church in which the number of new Catholics is well below the number who entered the Church in 2000, or even 2015.
But in 2026, some dioceses are reporting that the number of people entering the Church has significantly exceeded figures in recent years.
According to a recent New York Times article a number of dioceses reported record numbers for 2026.
The Pillar examined data for the most recent three years available from CARA (2022, 2023, and 2024) and also for five-year intervals from 2000 to 2015, as well as data for 2019, the last fully pre-COVID year.
From 2000 to 2019, most U.S. dioceses saw a decreasing trend in the number of people entering the Church.
But from 2022 to 2024, most U.S. dioceses have seen an increase in the number of new adult Catholics.
From 2000 to 2019, only 11% of dioceses had an increase in the number of adults entering the Church. In fact, the average US diocese had a 41% decrease in the number of new adult Catholics from 2000 to 2019.
However from 2022 to 2024, 81% of dioceses saw an increase in the number of new adult Catholics, and for the average diocese that increase was 35%
With many dioceses reporting record numbers of converts entering the Church this Easter in 2026, The Pillar collected data from dioceses which have published the number of catechumens and candidates entering the Church this year, in order to see how they compared to historical numbers of converts.
The data for 2026 was sourced from articles in diocesan newspapers or national periodicals — and The Pillar only used data from dioceses which specifically included both candidates and catechumens in the numbers.
Among the 16 dioceses we sampled, only one - the Diocese of Erie - had fewer people entering the Church in 2026 than in 2024. It’s possible that there is a selection effect in this trend. Dioceses with larger numbers of people entering the Church might be more inclined to publish news stories about it. However, the trend in these dioceses is certainly towards consistently large increases.
Newark had the largest increase. The New Jersey archdiocese reported that they have 1,755 adults entering the Church this Easter, which is more than four times the number the archdiocese reported to the OCD in 2024. Indeed, in Newark, the number of people entering the Church this year is more than in any prior year The Pillar reviewed.
Philadelphia also has a massive increase, from 283 people entering the Church in the archdiocese in 2024 to 1,162 coming in this Easter. Philadelphia last exceeded 1,000 new adult Catholics in 2005.
Across all 16 dioceses The Pillar reviewed, the average increase since 2024 was 83%.
However, only two of the 16 dioceses had more new adult Catholics in 2026 than in 2000 —Newark and Washington DC. In fact, among the 16 dioceses examined, the average diocese had 31% fewer people entering the Church in 2026 as compared to 2000.
If those dioceses prove to be representative of national trends, 2026 definitely represents a continuing increase in the number of converts since 2020. But it can be hard to understand what that means for the growth of the Church in the long term. Even as the number of new adult Catholics is rebounding, the number of infant baptisms in the U.S. has continued to fall rapidly.
Since 2000, the number of children baptized each year has fallen by more than 50%.
Whether that is because Catholics are having fewer children or fewer Catholics are choosing to have their children baptized, it seems like a negative sign for the growth of the Church.
And yet, the U.S. is not the only country to see an increasing number of new adult Catholics.
France has experienced a “baptism boom” over the last several years, with increasing numbers of adults and teenagers seeking baptism, even as the number of infants baptized in France has been on a multi-decade decline.
There is one sense in which that represents simple probability: When an increasing percentage of the population is unbaptized, more of the people who become interested seriously in the faith will necessarily be people who did not grow up in the Church.
But there is nothing inevitable about that kind of convert rebound. Other rapidly secularizing countries, such as Germany, have seen no notable surge in adult converts.
Regardless of your civic/church politics, and given the episcopate track record in ADWDC over the same period, and how the U.S. church in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic was ravaged by the sexual abuse crisis, this seems pretty remarkable:
“However, only two of the 16 dioceses had more new adult Catholics in 2026 than in 2000 —Newark and Washington DC.”
Dare I here commend Cardinals Wilton Gregory/Robert McElroy and Joseph Tobin and their priests and catechists for heroic evangelization? Taking cover.
Great analysis. I pray that through the joy and hope of the Resurrection, one day “other signs of active participation in the life of the Church” includes doing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the footsteps of He who walked the lonesome valley to Calvary.
Happy Easter to all. “*BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW.*”