Pope Francis
Pope Francis begins his U.S. papal visit Tuesday. AFP

The three cities Pope Francis will visit during his papal visit to the U.S. represent an interesting cross-section of the Catholic population in America, Pew Research found. The new stats compare the overall U.S. Catholic population to residents of Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

The first city on Pope Francis' agenda, Washington, has the youngest Catholic population of the three cities, Pew reported. Of those surveyed in the 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 26 percent of Catholics were 18 to 29 years of age. The national average for Catholics in that age group is 17 percent. In New York City, only 11 percent of Catholics were under the age of 30 while Philadelphia's youth population accounted for 21 percent of the city's Catholics. NYC's Catholic population 30 to 49 years of age (35 percent) was similar to the national average (33 percent). Compared to the U.S. overall, Washington had a higher percentage of Catholics in that age range (39 percent). Philadelphia was below the national stats with 24 percent. Only 11 percent of Washington's Catholic population is age 65 or older, significantly lower than the other cities and the overall U.S. population.

In terms of race and ethnicity, Philadelphia's Catholic population looks much different than the other metropolitan cities. In the City of Brotherly Love, 85 percent of Catholics are non-Hispanic whites. Washington is the outlier of the three cities with fewer white and Hispanic Catholics than the overall U.S. population, but more black and Asian Catholics.

The gender breakdown in the three cities is pretty close to the U.S. overall population of Catholics. Women make up 54 percent of the overall U.S. population, 50 percent in Washington, 58 percent in NYC and 57 percent in Philadelphia.