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How many Catholic churches are in the US?

By Louis-Marie Giudicenti. Published . Updated . Data read .

There are 20,713 Catholic churches on Google Maps in the US as of November 9, 2026, one for every 16,420 residents. The 2020 U.S. Religion Census counted 19,405 Catholic congregations, and CARA 16,125 parishes at the start of 2025: a parish with a mission church or a chapel has more than one listing.

20,713
Catholic churches on Google Maps in the US
0.6
per 10,000 residentsone for every 16,420
1,579
in New York, the most of any state
2.8
per 10,000 residents in North Dakota, the most of any state

Source: Primavera’s database of Google Maps listings, snapshot 2026-11, read November 9, 2026. Population: Census 2024 estimates. See method.

Our count next to published figures

Catholic churches are part of the 464,799 churches Primavera counts on Google Maps, 4.5% of them: see how many churches are in the US.

Each source counts something different: Google Maps lists places, the Census counts businesses with or without paid staff, and federations count their members or their own definition. Here they are side by side.

Number of Catholic churches in the US: Primavera’s Google Maps count next to official figures
Source and what it countsYearNumber
Primavera, Google Maps listings: Catholic churches open on the map, service points left out202620,713
U.S. Religion Census (ASARB), 2020 U.S. Religion Census, religious bodies by nation: Congregations of the Catholic Church202019,405
CARA, Georgetown University, Frequently Requested Church Statistics: Catholic parishes in the 50 states, DC and the Virgin Islands, at the start of 2025202516,125

Sources: No Census industry code counts this trade on its own. Census national files and federation pages read on November 9, 2026; Primavera, snapshot 2026-11.

Why the numbers differ

  • Churches, not parishes. A parish can serve several churches: a mission, a chapel, a shrine. Each has a listing of its own, while CARA counts the parish once (16,125 at the start of 2025).
  • Closed churches. Many dioceses have merged parishes in recent years. A church that has closed keeps its listing until Google marks it closed.
  • Eastern rites. Eastern Catholic churches and Catholic cathedrals are in this count. Orthodox churches are not.
  • No Census count. County Business Patterns files every religious organization under one code, all faiths together, so it gives no Catholic count.
  • Dates. The Religion Census describes 2020 and CARA the start of 2025; this count, November 9, 2026.

Which state has the most Catholic churches?

New York, with 1,579 listings, ahead of California (1,548). Per resident, North Dakota has the most: 2.8 per 10,000 residents, against 0.6 for the US.

Catholic churches per 10,000 residents, by state

Google Maps listings counted November 9, 2026. US: 0.6 per 10,000 residents.

Delaware: 47 Catholic churches, 0.4 per 10,000 residentsDE0.4District of Columbia: 56 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsDC0.8Florida: 679 Catholic churches, 0.3 per 10,000 residentsFL0.3Georgia: 222 Catholic churches, 0.2 per 10,000 residentsGA0.2Hawaii: 86 Catholic churches, 0.6 per 10,000 residentsHI0.6Idaho: 98 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsID0.5Illinois: 1,084 Catholic churches, 0.9 per 10,000 residentsIL0.9Indiana: 446 Catholic churches, 0.6 per 10,000 residentsIN0.6Iowa: 432 Catholic churches, 1.3 per 10,000 residentsIA1.3Kansas: 389 Catholic churches, 1.3 per 10,000 residentsKS1.3Kentucky: 309 Catholic churches, 0.7 per 10,000 residentsKY0.7Louisiana: 577 Catholic churches, 1.3 per 10,000 residentsLA1.3Maine: 135 Catholic churches, 1.0 per 10,000 residentsME1.0Maryland: 304 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsMD0.5Massachusetts: 619 Catholic churches, 0.9 per 10,000 residentsMA0.9Michigan: 859 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsMI0.8Minnesota: 629 Catholic churches, 1.1 per 10,000 residentsMN1.1Mississippi: 148 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsMS0.5Missouri: 485 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsMO0.8Montana: 160 Catholic churches, 1.4 per 10,000 residentsMT1.4Nebraska: 398 Catholic churches, 2.0 per 10,000 residentsNE2.0Nevada: 86 Catholic churches, 0.3 per 10,000 residentsNV0.3New Hampshire: 131 Catholic churches, 0.9 per 10,000 residentsNH0.9New Jersey: 762 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsNJ0.8New Mexico: 331 Catholic churches, 1.6 per 10,000 residentsNM1.6New York: 1,579 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsNY0.8North Carolina: 223 Catholic churches, 0.2 per 10,000 residentsNC0.2North Dakota: 227 Catholic churches, 2.8 per 10,000 residentsND2.8Ohio: 860 Catholic churches, 0.7 per 10,000 residentsOH0.7Oklahoma: 189 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsOK0.5Oregon: 217 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsOR0.5Pennsylvania: 1,202 Catholic churches, 0.9 per 10,000 residentsPA0.9Rhode Island: 145 Catholic churches, 1.3 per 10,000 residentsRI1.3South Carolina: 132 Catholic churches, 0.2 per 10,000 residentsSC0.2South Dakota: 192 Catholic churches, 2.1 per 10,000 residentsSD2.1Tennessee: 177 Catholic churches, 0.2 per 10,000 residentsTN0.2Texas: 1,456 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsTX0.5Utah: 71 Catholic churches, 0.2 per 10,000 residentsUT0.2Vermont: 100 Catholic churches, 1.5 per 10,000 residentsVT1.5Virginia: 269 Catholic churches, 0.3 per 10,000 residentsVA0.3Washington: 297 Catholic churches, 0.4 per 10,000 residentsWA0.4West Virginia: 140 Catholic churches, 0.8 per 10,000 residentsWV0.8Wisconsin: 811 Catholic churches, 1.4 per 10,000 residentsWI1.4Wyoming: 70 Catholic churches, 1.2 per 10,000 residentsWY1.2Alaska: 73 Catholic churches, 1.0 per 10,000 residentsAK1.0Connecticut: 328 Catholic churches, 0.9 per 10,000 residentsCT0.9California: 1,548 Catholic churches, 0.4 per 10,000 residentsCA0.4Colorado: 290 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsCO0.5Arizona: 313 Catholic churches, 0.4 per 10,000 residentsAZ0.4Arkansas: 141 Catholic churches, 0.5 per 10,000 residentsAR0.5Alabama: 191 Catholic churches, 0.4 per 10,000 residentsAL0.4
  • 0.2–0.4
  • 0.5
  • 0.6–0.8
  • 0.9–1.2
  • 1.3–2.8

Each square is a state, placed roughly where it is on a map. Darker means more per resident.

US states ranked by Catholic churches per 10,000 residents, with the number of Catholic churches and its rank
#StateCatholic churchesRank by numberPer 10,000 residentsvs US
1North Dakota227272.8+2.2
2South Dakota192312.1+1.5
3Nebraska398172.0+1.4
4New Mexico331191.6+1.0
5Vermont100431.5+0.9
6Montana160351.4+0.8
7Wisconsin81181.4+0.8
8Iowa432161.3+0.7
9Kansas389181.3+0.7
10Rhode Island145371.3+0.7
11Louisiana577131.3+0.7
12Wyoming70491.2+0.6
13Minnesota629111.1+0.5
14Alaska73471.0+0.4
15Maine135401.0+0.4
16New Hampshire131420.9+0.3
17Pennsylvania1,20240.9+0.3
18Connecticut328200.9+0.3
19Massachusetts619120.9+0.3
20Illinois1,08450.9+0.3
21Michigan85970.8+0.2
22New Jersey76290.8+0.2
23District of Columbia56500.8+0.2
24New York1,57910.8+0.2
25West Virginia140390.8+0.2
26Missouri485140.8+0.2
27Ohio86060.7+0.1
28Kentucky309220.7+0.1
29Indiana446150.60.0
30Hawaii86450.60.0
31Oregon217300.5−0.1
32Mississippi148360.5−0.1
33Idaho98440.5−0.1
34Colorado290250.5−0.1
35Maryland304230.5−0.1
36Texas1,45630.5−0.1
37Oklahoma189330.5−0.1
38Arkansas141380.5−0.1
39Delaware47510.4−0.2
40Arizona313210.4−0.2
41California1,54820.4−0.2
42Washington297240.4−0.2
43Alabama191320.4−0.2
44Virginia269260.3−0.3
45Florida679100.3−0.3
46Nevada86460.3−0.3
47Tennessee177340.2−0.4
48South Carolina132410.2−0.4
49Utah71480.2−0.4
50North Carolina223280.2−0.4
51Georgia222290.2−0.4

US: 0.6 per 10,000 residents

In number, New York (1,579), California (1,548) and Texas (1,456) lead. Per resident, North Dakota has 14 times as many Catholic churches as Georgia, the lowest.

Source: Primavera, snapshot 2026-11, read November 9, 2026. 0 Catholic churches without a public address could not be placed in a state and are only in the US total.

How Catholic churches show up online

Catholic churches in the United States, by kind of contact listed

Share of all 20,713 listings.

Website link86.8%
Phone number94.0%
Email address70.8%
Catholic churches next to all US businesses: website builders, links, ad tags, ratings and chains
MeasureCatholic churchesAll US businesses
Websites read11,69412,846,647
Built with WordPress42.0%29.2%
Built with Wix11.7%7.1%
Built with Squarespace6.1%5.6%
Site links to Instagram31.6%35.1%
Site links to Facebook70.7%45.2%
Meta Pixel or other Meta script4.9%8.8%
Google Ads tag2.5%6.1%
Average Google rating4.694.44
Rated under 4 stars1.9%17.4%
Median Google reviews3211
Part of a chain0.0%7.9%

Catholic churches are among the best-rated places on Google: 4.69 stars on average, against 4.44 for all US businesses. 70.8% have an email address in Primavera, 2.4 times the share of all US businesses.

Note: Builders, links and tags are shares of the websites Primavera could read (11,694 for Catholic churches), social pages and booking platforms excluded. The Meta figure is an upper bound: Meta’s like buttons and chat load the same script as its ad pixel. Sites made with GoDaddy, Weebly or Duda are counted under none of these builders. Ratings: listings with at least one review.

Which chains have the most Catholic churches?

Each Catholic church is listed under its own name: our rules, which group listings that share a name and a website, tie almost none of them to a network (0.0%).

What these figures don’t say

  • Mass attendance or parishioners. A listing is a building, not a congregation.
  • Which churches are parish seats and which are missions or chapels.
  • Catholic schools, hospitals and charities, which have categories of their own.
  • How many companies own these places. A company with several locations counts once per listing.

Questions

Which state has the most Catholic churches?

New York, with 1,579 listings, ahead of California (1,548). Per resident, North Dakota has the most: 2.8 per 10,000 residents, against 0.6 for the US.

How many Catholic parishes are there in the US?

16,125 at the start of 2025, according to CARA at Georgetown University. Google Maps lists 20,713 Catholic churches, because a parish can have several churches and chapels.

What share of US churches are Catholic?

On Google Maps, 4.5% of the 464,799 church listings Primavera counts are Catholic churches (November 9, 2026). The 2020 U.S. Religion Census counted 19,405 Catholic congregations out of 356,739 of all faiths.

Method and data

Snapshot 2026-11, read November 9, 2026
What is counted
Open listings on Google Maps in the United States whose main Google category is one of the categories below, or whose main category is generic and another of its categories is: 20,713 listings, counted on October 29, 2026 and read on November 9, 2026. Service points (lockers, charging stations) are left out.
Categories
3 Google Maps categories: Catholic church, Catholic cathedral, Eastern Catholic church.
Per resident
Listings for 10,000 residents, with each state’s population from the Census 2024 estimates. States are ranked on the exact ratio.
Official figures
Census County Business Patterns 2023, read on November 9, 2026; federation and agency pages read the same day. Links are in the table above.
Chains
A listing belongs to a chain when its name starts with the chain’s name and its website matches. Agents or franchisees who put their own name first are not tied to the chain.
Cite and download
Louis-Marie Giudicenti (2026). “How many Catholic churches are in the US?” Primavera. Data: snapshot 2026-11, November 9, 2026. https://primaverapp.com/en/data/catholic-churches-in-the-us

Permanent link: https://primaverapp.com/en/data/catholic-churches-in-the-us

Download: states (CSV), map (SVG)

Free to reuse under the CC BY 4.0 license, with a link to this page.

More on how the database is built: all trade counts and how Primavera builds its data.

Written by Louis-Marie Giudicenti

Founder of Primavera. Primavera sells lists of local businesses built from the same database.

Published
Updated

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