For decades, the Catholic Church in the United States has operated with a widely accepted, but deeply flawed, assumption: that there are 70 million Catholics in America.

It’s a number that shows up in Vatican reports, press releases, and grant applications. It’s repeated in diocesan strategic plans and used to justify the scope of ministry and outreach efforts.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

That number doesn’t reflect reality—and it’s time we admit it.

Where Does the “70 Million Catholics” Number Come From?

Unlike most institutions that track membership through formal enrollment or account-based systems, the Catholic Church in the U.S. doesn’t have a national registry of members. Instead, that 70 million figure comes from survey data—namely, large national polls conducted by groups like:

• Pew Research Center
• Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)
• The General Social Survey (GSS)

These surveys ask a simple question: “What is your religion?”
If someone answers “Catholic,” they’re counted as such—regardless of whether they’re attending Mass, involved in a parish, receiving sacraments, or even still practicing their faith.

So the figure reflects self-identification, not actual participation.

This matters. Because while around 20–21% of Americans say they are Catholic, the number of practicing, parish-connected, sacrament-receiving Catholics is likely much lower—and much harder to quantify.

The Problem with Guesswork

Without an accurate, up-to-date picture of our Catholic population, the Church is forced to make critical decisions in the dark.

• Parishes can’t tell who has moved, disengaged, or drifted away.
• Dioceses struggle to plan for vocations, school enrollments, or capital campaigns.
• National organizations can’t demonstrate real impact to donors or the Vatican.

Many parishes still rely on paper-based sacramental logs. Others use disconnected systems that don’t talk to each other. And because there’s no continuity when people move between parishes or dioceses, the Church loses track of its people over time.

In other words, the Church’s most vital data—its people—is fragmented, outdated, and incomplete.

What If We Could Actually See the People We Serve?

That’s where CaDRIS (Catholic Digital Record and Information System) comes in.

CaDRIS is a cloud-based platform that digitizes, centralizes, and securely connects sacramental records across parishes and dioceses. It allows Church leaders to move beyond static surveys and fragmented paper logs to a living, searchable record of Catholic life in the U.S.

With CaDRIS, dioceses and parishes can:

✅ Track sacramental participation in real time—from baptism through marriage and beyond
✅ Understand population shifts, mobility, and parish engagement
✅ Inform evangelization, vocations, and development strategies with reliable data
✅ Ensure Canon Law compliance with a secure, auditable system
✅ See trends over time across the diocese or even nationally

Why Now?

As Catholic demographics shift and parishes face new challenges—from priest shortages to school closures to cultural disaffiliation—the need for accurate, connected, and actionable data has never been more urgent.

We don’t need more surveys. We need a system rooted in the lived sacramental reality of our Church—one that helps us shepherd, not just count, the faithful.