SW News: According to a recent survey by the US-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) of Georgetown University, Nigeria may have the highest rate of Catholics attending mass worldwide!

When asked, "How often do you attend religious services these days, aside from weddings, funerals, and christenings?" 94% of self-identified Catholics in Nigeria who participated in the study indicated they regularly attend Mass.

The World Values Survey (WVS), which started collecting data in the 1980s and includes figures for 36 nations with sizable Catholic populations, conducted the poll.

According to CARA, which compiled the data, it's unclear which nation has the highest rate of Mass attendance since polls on the subject have not been undertaken in every country in the globe.

As a result, for instance, Malta, which according to census data has up to 40% of the Catholic population, is not included on this list. However, among those asked by WVS, adult self-identified Catholics in Kenya (73%) and Lebanon (69%), excluding Nigeria, attend Mass once a week or more frequently.

The next set of countries, where half or more Catholics attend every week, includes the Philippines (56%), Colombia (54%), Poland (52%), and Ecuador (50%).

Fewer than half, but a third or more attend every week in Bosnia and Herzegovina (48%), Mexico (47%), Nicaragua (45%), Bolivia (42%), Slovakia (40%), Italy (34%), and Peru (33%).

The CARA survey revealed that between three in 10 and a quarter of Catholics attend Mass every week in Venezuela (30%), Albania (29%), Spain (27%), Croatia (27%), New Zealand (25%), and the United Kingdom (25%). Next comes the United States with about 24% attending Mass every week or more often before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other countries with similar Catholic Mass attendance to the United States are Hungary (24%), Slovenia (24%), Uruguay (23%), Australia (21%), Argentina (21%), Portugal (20%), the Czech Republic (20%), and Austria (17%).

The lowest levels of weekly attendance were observed in Lithuania (16%), Germany (14%), Canada (14%), Latvia (11%), Switzerland (11%), Brazil (8%), France (8%), and the Netherlands (7%).

The study also found a connection between economic variables and attendance at Mass, coming to the conclusion that Catholicism is most prevalent in regions with lower GDP per capita, commonly referred to as the developing world