Percentage of Latin American Catholics falls to 69 percent WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The percentage of Latin Americans who consider themselves Catholic has fallen to 69 percent of the population, from 90 percent a generation ago. A survey of 30,000 respondents in Puerto Rico and 18 Latin American countries by the Pew Research Center indicates 84 percent say they were raised Catholic -- a rapid decline in Catholic adherents. Attendance at Evangelical and Pentecostal churches is on the rise, typically at the expense of Catholic congregations. The survey indicates 19 percent of Latin Americans are Protestant, and more likely to attend church, offer tithes and pray more and oppose same-sex marriage more strongly than Catholics. The researchers call Uruguay "far and away Latin America's most secular country" with 42 percent of the population Catholic and 37 percent religiously unaffiliated. Paraguay's population, by comparison, is 89 percent Catholic. The decline in Latin American Catholics is similar to that in the United States, the New York Times noted, where large numbers of those raised Catholic, Hispanic and non-Hispanic, have abandoned the church. Eighteen percent of U.S. Hispanics regard themselves as unaffiliated, compared to only eight percent in Latin America. The shift in Latin America has been traced largely to a search for more personal connection with God, the leading reason for leaving Catholicism to embrace Protestantism, of eight mentioned in the survey. Others sought a church offering more service to its congregations; health issues, family problems and marriage to a non-Catholic were also reasons given. Half the Protestant converts said the new church was welcoming, and reached out to them. The survey was conducted from October 2013 to February 2014 in every Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking country in Latin America, except for Cuba. The margin of sampling error in each country was three or four percentage points.