ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effect of a Catholic heritage on the odds of inter-marriage. It explores the relationship between location and intermarriage by breaking down the data on Catholic intermarriage rates by region at age sixteen. The defection rate from Catholicism thus ranges from about 9 percent for women born before 1930 to about 27 percent for men born during the 1950s. William Sander showed that if current religion is used, Catholic effects on fertility tend to be inflated because converts to Catholicism tend to have a relatively high preference for having children, while defectors from Catholicism tend to have a relatively low preference for having children. Catholics who were living in the United States at age sixteen were selected. Mixed marriage rates differ considerably between the Catholic upbringing and Catholic populations because of defections from Catholicism and conversions to the Catholic faith.
