History of Roman Catholicism in The United States - 19th Century

19th Century

The Catholic population of the United States, which had been 35,000 in 1790, increased to 195,000 in 1820 and then ballooned to about 1.6 million in 1850, by which time, Catholics had become the country’s largest religion. Between 1860 and 1890 the population of Roman Catholics in the United States tripled primarily through immigration. By the end of the century, there were 12 million Catholics in the United States.