Are the people of Latin America losing faith in the Catholic church? According to a new study, the percentage of devout Catholics - within Latin America - has significantly dropped from 90 percent to 70 percent within the 20th Century.

The research conducted by the "Pew Research Religion & Public Line Project" was released last week, and it debated and revealed the change in Catholicism of people living in Latin America. There are currently still 425 million Catholics living in Latin America, but with the current pope hailing from Argentina, it's surprising to see such a continued move away from Catholicism.

During the 20th century from 1900 to the 1960s, at least 90 percent of Latin America's population were Catholic. As of now, 69 percent of adults across that region identify themselves as Catholic, according to the "Pew Research Religion & Public Line Project." The Catholic Church has also experienced financial losses throughout that region.

More and more people of Latin American descent have switched from Catholic churches to either joining evangelical Pentecostal or Protestant churches, or have simply rejected any kind of organized religion. In countries such as Nicaragua, one in four people identify themselves as Catholic, and similarly in Brazil one in five are Catholic, according to the Pew research study.

The study carried out data from 18 countries and one U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Some of the reasons behind the dwindling support of the Catholic faith in Latin America are that a number of people who were raised Catholic have converted to Protestant churches. In many countries, the research found that 50 percent of Protestants had been raised Catholic, The Washington Post reported.

Some other reasons for leaving the faith suggest that the Catholics in Latin America are less morally opposed than Protestants when it comes to issues such as abortion, homosexuality, birth control, and sex outside the marriage, NBC News reported. Another reason is that former Catholics - namely in Argentina and Uruguay - are more skeptical of Pope Francis.

But current Catholics view the Pope positively, the Pew research states: "While it is too soon to know whether (Pope) Francis can stop or reverse the church's losses in the region, the new survey finds that people who are currently Catholic overwhelmingly view Francis favorably and consider his papacy a major change for the church," NBC News reported.

The research was conducted via face-to-face interviews of 30,000 people in three languages. The margin of error for each country ranged from 2.8 points and 4 points.