The United States is home to about 7 percent of all Catholics in the world. As of 2010, an estimated 23 percent of U.S. adults and 24 percent of the total U.S. population are Catholic. The U.S. Catholic population has lost more members than it has gained from denominational switching.
Definition of civil union. : the legal status that ensures to same-sex couples specified rights and responsibilities of married couples.
By the end of 2006, Connecticut and New Jersey had also enacted civil union laws; New Hampshire followed in 2007. Furthermore, California's domestic partnership law had been expanded to the point that it became practically a civil union law, as well.