Wow Latest Catholic Church Statistics - Over 1.378 Billion Catholics Worldwide and Growing! - Revealing the Country with the Most Catholics
The growth of Catholics in the world continues, in 2021 they rose to
1 billion and 378 million. The number of Catholics worldwide has increased.
1 billion and 378 million. The number of Catholics worldwide has increased.
As Vatican News reported, there were around 1.378 billion Catholics in 2021. This corresponds to an increase of 1.3 percent compared to the previous year.
The site refers to figures from the just published Vatican Statistical Yearbook (Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae).
According to this, the number of Catholics in Africa rose by more than 3 percent, in Asia and America slightly by about 1 percent, in Europe the numbers remained almost unchanged.
The number of baptized persons is on the increase, above all in Africa, Asia and America, against a decrease in priestly vocations. These are some of the data contained in the Pontifical Yearbook 2023 and in the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2021 edited by the Central Statistics Office of the Church
Report from The Osservatore Romano in Vatican News:
The Pontifical Yearbook 2023 and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2021, the drafting of which was supervised by the Central Statistics Office of the Church, are currently being distributed in bookstores, published by the Vatican Publishing House.
Looking at the number of Catholics present in the various continental areas out of the world total, in the two-year period considered, the trend towards an increase in the percentage of Africa is confirmed (whose Catholics rise from 18.9% to 19.3% of those worldwide) and the decline, instead, of the European one, for which the percentage of the world total drops, in 2021, from 21.1% in 2020, by three percentage points.
Report from The Osservatore Romano in Vatican News:
The Pontifical Yearbook 2023 and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2021, the drafting of which was supervised by the Central Statistics Office of the Church, are currently being distributed in bookstores, published by the Vatican Publishing House.
Looking at the number of Catholics present in the various continental areas out of the world total, in the two-year period considered, the trend towards an increase in the percentage of Africa is confirmed (whose Catholics rise from 18.9% to 19.3% of those worldwide) and the decline, instead, of the European one, for which the percentage of the world total drops, in 2021, from 21.1% in 2020, by three percentage points.
Even if a very slight decline is reported in 2021, America remains the continent to which 48% of the world's Catholics belong. Of these, almost 57% reside in South America, 27% in Brazil alone, which confirms itself as the country with the highest consistency of baptized Catholics in the world: almost 180 million people in Brazil belong to the Catholic faith.
The incidence of the Asian continent appears to be moderately growing which, with a weight of over 59% of the planet's population, remains, as far as Catholics are concerned, around 11% in the period considered. In Oceania, the weight of Catholics on the world total remains stable, even if with a consistency that does not reach 0.8% of the world population.
The most recent data, referring to 2021, indicate that the number of clerics in the world is equal to 462,388 people, with 5,340 bishops, 407,872 priests and 49,176 permanent deacons. Compared to 2020, clerics decrease by 0.39%.
The number of bishops goes from 5,363 in 2020 to 5,340 in 2021. The drop affects America (from 2,022 to 2,000), Asia (from 810 to 806), Europe (from 1,678 to 1,676) and the 'Oceania (from 135 to 133), while Africa recorded an increase of 7 people. In particular, in North America there is a growth of 3 people while the rest of the continent shows contrasting variations: almost stable in the central part and a rather pronounced decrease (24 people) in the southern part.
The percentage incidence of bishops by continent remains substantially stable in the period considered: in particular, in 2021 the entire American continent gathers 37.5% of all the bishops of the world, followed by Europe with 31.4%, by Asia with 15.1%, from Africa with 13.6% and from Oceania with 2.4%
The distribution by continent of the number of Catholics per bishop is more homogeneous and balanced, passing on average from 254,000 to 258,000 Catholics between 2020 and 2021: Africa and Asia, continents in which the spread of Catholicism has shown greater dynamism, show a tendency to converge towards the mean.
The evaluation of the number of priests for each bishop is useful to have an idea of the pastoral commitments that each bishop has to face on each continent. On a worldwide level, this ratio decreased in the two-year period considered from 77 to 76 priests per bishop, thus highlighting a better quantitative balance, in the continental reality, between priests and bishops as the time elapsed between the beginning and the end of the observation period.
The number of priests, overall worldwide, went from 410,219 people in 2020 to 407,872 in 2021, with a drop of 0.57%. However, when the part of diocesan priests and that of religious priests are analyzed separately, it is found that against a decrease of 0.32% of the former, the latter suffer a decrease of 1.1%. In the various continents the variations are in contrast: Europe and Africa but also Asia are placed in an antithetical position. Indeed, in Europe there is a decrease in both diocesan priests and religious priests (also in America there is a decrease in the two groups of priests), on the other hand in Africa and Asia there is an increase in priests of both groups. In Africa the number of diocesan priests increased from 35,561 to 36,535, with a relative increase of 2.74%, while the number of religious priests increased by 3.65%. In Asia, the number of priests recorded an overall growth of 1.0% over the two-year period considered. In Oceania there is an increase of just 0.2%, however in this continent the relative low number of priests makes the impact less and the contingent of 4,496 people in 2020 increases up to 4,507 in 2021.
The percentage distribution of priests by continent shows appreciable changes in the two-year period considered. Europe, while holding the highest share, sees the number of priests out of the total decrease over time: in 2020 the 164,000 priests represented almost 40% of the total ecclesiastical group, while a year later they fell to a share equal to 39.3%. Conversely, Africa and Asia are gaining ground, conquering a total of 30.3% of the world total in 2021, from 29.6% in 2020. Over time, America and Oceania maintain a stable percentage incidence around by 29% and just over 1%, respectively.
By reading the data reported in the Annuario Pontificio it is possible to obtain information relating to the life of the Catholic Church in the world, starting from 1 December 2021 to 30 November 2022. During this period 4 bishoprics were erected (3 dioceses and one eparchy ); two dioceses have been united; a territorial prelature was elevated to a diocese, while a diocese became an apostolic exarchate.
The Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae provides data on the main dynamics that characterize the pastoral action of the Catholic Church in the 3,030 ecclesiastical districts of the planet.
Below are some annotations on the quantitative aspects that appear to constitute the clearest and most important trends for the Catholic Church between 2020 and 2021.
Globally, the number of baptized Catholics rose from 1,360 million in 2020 to 1,378 million in 2021, with a relative change of +1.3%. This increase is only slightly lower than that of the Earth's population, which increased in the same period from 7,667 to 7,786 million, with a positive variation, therefore, of 1.6%.
These increases are to be ascribed in different ways to the different continental situations: while, in fact, in Africa there is an increase of 3.1% of Catholics, at the opposite extreme, in Europe there is a situation of practical stability; Also noteworthy are the increases in Asia (+0.99) and America (+1.01%). As of 2021, Catholics make up 17.67% of the world's population. The rate of Catholics on the population has remained practically unchanged in recent years, thus highlighting a behavior of substantial stability in the diffusion of Catholics. Similarly, it can be noted that the highest proportion is in the Americas with 64.1 Catholics per 100 inhabitants, followed by that of Europe with 39.6 Catholics, that of Oceania with 25.9 and that of Africa with 19. 4; the lowest incidence is in Asia with 3.3 Catholics per 100 inhabitants, due, as is known, to the great diffusion of non-Christian confessions in this continent.
The differences between the distribution of Catholics and priests, as well as the diversity of the temporal dynamics highlighted for these two characters, imply that there is a marked variability of the pastoral load understood as the ratio between the number of Catholics and the number of priests: this index goes to world level from 3,314 in 2020 to 3,373 in 2021. Compared to the world average value, the heaviest loads in 2021 are located in America (5,534) and Africa (5,101). Below the world average, Oceania (with 2,437 Catholics per priest), Asia (2,137) and Europe (1,784) are placed in descending order.
The population of permanent deacons, both diocesan and religious, also shows a significant and encouraging evolution in the two-year period 2020-2021: the number in the world goes from 48,635 to 49,176 people, with a relative increase of 1.1%. The increase occurs everywhere, however the growth rates are different from continent to continent. Europe and America record the most numerically significant increase. In fact, the number of European deacons, with 15,170 people in 2020, reaches 15,438 people in 2021. In America, the consistency of 32,226 in 2020 rises in 2021 to 32,373 people. These two continents alone account for more than 97% of the planet's global consistency, with the remaining portion divided between Africa, Asia and Oceania. The growth rate is slower in Asia and Oceania in particular. This highly differentiated development of the various continents has meant that the percentage importance of deacons has changed quite a bit during the period considered: for example, in Europe at the beginning of the period the percentage constituted 31.2% of the total planetary, by 2021 it will pass to 31.4%. Correlatively, in America, where there is another consistent group of permanent deacons, there is a decrease in the relative weight (from 66.3% to 65.8%).
The pastoral activity of the clerics is supported by other figures of religious operators: to these we dedicate the following observations.
The contraction trend that has affected the group of professed religious who are not priests for several years continues: worldwide, they numbered 50,569 people in 2020 and fell to 49,774 in 2021, with a change of -1.6%. In sharp decline in Europe (-4.1%), in North America (-3.6%) and in Oceania (-10.3%), stationary in Asia, the number of professed religious who are not priests increase in Africa (+2 .2%), where they continue to increase their share of the global total. The weight of professed religious who are not priests in Africa and Asia exceeds the percentage present in America by 71%. Europe continues to maintain the highest relative share (27.9%), but decreasing compared to 2020.
In 2021, professed women religious represent a total of 608,958 people, approximately 33% present in Europe, followed by Asia which has 175,494 consecrated women and America which reaches 145,206 people. Compared to 2020, the group suffers a decrease of 1.7%. The decrease concerns three continents (Europe, America and Oceania), with even significant negative variations (around -3.5%). Consequently, the fraction of women religious in Africa and Asia on the world total goes from 41.1% to 42.3%, to the detriment of Europe and America, whose incidence as a whole decreases from 57.8% to 56.7%.
The temporal trend for the number of major seminarians that can be observed in the world, starting from 2013, denotes an uninterrupted decrease that continues also in 2021. In this year the consistency of seminarians stands at 109,895 people, distributed for 61% among diocesan seminarians and the remaining 39% among religious. Compared to 2020 there was a decrease of 1.8%. The decrease occurs in almost all territorial divisions: the number of seminarians is expanding only in Africa where an increase of just 0.6% was recorded between 2020 and 2021. In North America there is a rather pronounced downward trend (-5.8% in the two-year period considered). The rest of the American continent, on the other hand, shows a smaller contraction (-1.8%). In Europe and Asia, seminarians suffer a decrease of 5.8% and 1.6%, respectively, in the two-year period. Consequently, a reduction of the role of the European continent in the potential growth of the renewal of the priestly structure can be observed, with a share that passes from 13.6% to just over 13% of the world total. North America has also recorded a decrease in weight, going from a share of 4.6% in 2020 to 4.4% in 2021. The incidence of the rest of the American continent on the world total remains practically unchanged over the two-year period. On the other hand, the weight of Africa and Asia is increasing, which overall reaches 60.1% of all major seminarians. Oceania represents just 0.9% of the total, but with a slight increase.
By equating the number of major seminarians to the amount of the Catholic population, a rate (of vocations) is obtained which sheds even better light on the extent of the level reached by vocations at the end of the two-year period. In 2020 there were 8.23 major seminarians per 100,000 Catholics across the continents and the number at the end of 2021 is 7.99. The most favorable situation is recorded, as regards 2021, in Asia (with 20.96 seminarians per hundred thousand Catholics), in Africa (with 12.75) and in Oceania (8.76). The vocation rate is much lower in the remaining divisions where the value of 5.01 for Europe contrasts with that of 4.13 in South America.
Also in relation to the number of priests present, vocations are declining. If the number of candidates in the world in 2020 was, in fact, equal to 27.27 per 100 priests, in 2021 the quotient drops to 26.94. This indicator, which can be interpreted as a measure of the potential for generational sustainability in effective pastoral service, is diversified by continental area. Comparing, in fact, the values observed in 2021 on the various continents with the threshold value equal to 12.5 seminarians per 100 priests present and such as to guarantee priestly turnover by seminarians, it is noted that at the moment Europe, counting out of less than 9 candidates for every 100 priests in 2021, it remains the only continental area below the replacement percentage, thus confirming the persistence of a situation of decline in priestly vocations, decreased by 888 people since 2020. The continent with the most favorable quotient remains the African one, in which for 100 priests present more than 65 seminarians attend in 2021, philosophy and theology seminarians, and the Asian one (with 44.79 seminarians per 100 priests). At the level of subcontinents, North America is also below the threshold value, with a ratio of seminarians and priests equal to 11.21%.
The most recent data, referring to 2021, indicate that the number of clerics in the world is equal to 462,388 people, with 5,340 bishops, 407,872 priests and 49,176 permanent deacons. Compared to 2020, clerics decrease by 0.39%.
The number of bishops goes from 5,363 in 2020 to 5,340 in 2021. The drop affects America (from 2,022 to 2,000), Asia (from 810 to 806), Europe (from 1,678 to 1,676) and the 'Oceania (from 135 to 133), while Africa recorded an increase of 7 people. In particular, in North America there is a growth of 3 people while the rest of the continent shows contrasting variations: almost stable in the central part and a rather pronounced decrease (24 people) in the southern part.
The percentage incidence of bishops by continent remains substantially stable in the period considered: in particular, in 2021 the entire American continent gathers 37.5% of all the bishops of the world, followed by Europe with 31.4%, by Asia with 15.1%, from Africa with 13.6% and from Oceania with 2.4%
The distribution by continent of the number of Catholics per bishop is more homogeneous and balanced, passing on average from 254,000 to 258,000 Catholics between 2020 and 2021: Africa and Asia, continents in which the spread of Catholicism has shown greater dynamism, show a tendency to converge towards the mean.
The evaluation of the number of priests for each bishop is useful to have an idea of the pastoral commitments that each bishop has to face on each continent. On a worldwide level, this ratio decreased in the two-year period considered from 77 to 76 priests per bishop, thus highlighting a better quantitative balance, in the continental reality, between priests and bishops as the time elapsed between the beginning and the end of the observation period.
The number of priests, overall worldwide, went from 410,219 people in 2020 to 407,872 in 2021, with a drop of 0.57%. However, when the part of diocesan priests and that of religious priests are analyzed separately, it is found that against a decrease of 0.32% of the former, the latter suffer a decrease of 1.1%. In the various continents the variations are in contrast: Europe and Africa but also Asia are placed in an antithetical position. Indeed, in Europe there is a decrease in both diocesan priests and religious priests (also in America there is a decrease in the two groups of priests), on the other hand in Africa and Asia there is an increase in priests of both groups. In Africa the number of diocesan priests increased from 35,561 to 36,535, with a relative increase of 2.74%, while the number of religious priests increased by 3.65%. In Asia, the number of priests recorded an overall growth of 1.0% over the two-year period considered. In Oceania there is an increase of just 0.2%, however in this continent the relative low number of priests makes the impact less and the contingent of 4,496 people in 2020 increases up to 4,507 in 2021.
The percentage distribution of priests by continent shows appreciable changes in the two-year period considered. Europe, while holding the highest share, sees the number of priests out of the total decrease over time: in 2020 the 164,000 priests represented almost 40% of the total ecclesiastical group, while a year later they fell to a share equal to 39.3%. Conversely, Africa and Asia are gaining ground, conquering a total of 30.3% of the world total in 2021, from 29.6% in 2020. Over time, America and Oceania maintain a stable percentage incidence around by 29% and just over 1%, respectively.
By reading the data reported in the Annuario Pontificio it is possible to obtain information relating to the life of the Catholic Church in the world, starting from 1 December 2021 to 30 November 2022. During this period 4 bishoprics were erected (3 dioceses and one eparchy ); two dioceses have been united; a territorial prelature was elevated to a diocese, while a diocese became an apostolic exarchate.
The Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae provides data on the main dynamics that characterize the pastoral action of the Catholic Church in the 3,030 ecclesiastical districts of the planet.
Below are some annotations on the quantitative aspects that appear to constitute the clearest and most important trends for the Catholic Church between 2020 and 2021.
Globally, the number of baptized Catholics rose from 1,360 million in 2020 to 1,378 million in 2021, with a relative change of +1.3%. This increase is only slightly lower than that of the Earth's population, which increased in the same period from 7,667 to 7,786 million, with a positive variation, therefore, of 1.6%.
These increases are to be ascribed in different ways to the different continental situations: while, in fact, in Africa there is an increase of 3.1% of Catholics, at the opposite extreme, in Europe there is a situation of practical stability; Also noteworthy are the increases in Asia (+0.99) and America (+1.01%). As of 2021, Catholics make up 17.67% of the world's population. The rate of Catholics on the population has remained practically unchanged in recent years, thus highlighting a behavior of substantial stability in the diffusion of Catholics. Similarly, it can be noted that the highest proportion is in the Americas with 64.1 Catholics per 100 inhabitants, followed by that of Europe with 39.6 Catholics, that of Oceania with 25.9 and that of Africa with 19. 4; the lowest incidence is in Asia with 3.3 Catholics per 100 inhabitants, due, as is known, to the great diffusion of non-Christian confessions in this continent.
The differences between the distribution of Catholics and priests, as well as the diversity of the temporal dynamics highlighted for these two characters, imply that there is a marked variability of the pastoral load understood as the ratio between the number of Catholics and the number of priests: this index goes to world level from 3,314 in 2020 to 3,373 in 2021. Compared to the world average value, the heaviest loads in 2021 are located in America (5,534) and Africa (5,101). Below the world average, Oceania (with 2,437 Catholics per priest), Asia (2,137) and Europe (1,784) are placed in descending order.
The population of permanent deacons, both diocesan and religious, also shows a significant and encouraging evolution in the two-year period 2020-2021: the number in the world goes from 48,635 to 49,176 people, with a relative increase of 1.1%. The increase occurs everywhere, however the growth rates are different from continent to continent. Europe and America record the most numerically significant increase. In fact, the number of European deacons, with 15,170 people in 2020, reaches 15,438 people in 2021. In America, the consistency of 32,226 in 2020 rises in 2021 to 32,373 people. These two continents alone account for more than 97% of the planet's global consistency, with the remaining portion divided between Africa, Asia and Oceania. The growth rate is slower in Asia and Oceania in particular. This highly differentiated development of the various continents has meant that the percentage importance of deacons has changed quite a bit during the period considered: for example, in Europe at the beginning of the period the percentage constituted 31.2% of the total planetary, by 2021 it will pass to 31.4%. Correlatively, in America, where there is another consistent group of permanent deacons, there is a decrease in the relative weight (from 66.3% to 65.8%).
The pastoral activity of the clerics is supported by other figures of religious operators: to these we dedicate the following observations.
The contraction trend that has affected the group of professed religious who are not priests for several years continues: worldwide, they numbered 50,569 people in 2020 and fell to 49,774 in 2021, with a change of -1.6%. In sharp decline in Europe (-4.1%), in North America (-3.6%) and in Oceania (-10.3%), stationary in Asia, the number of professed religious who are not priests increase in Africa (+2 .2%), where they continue to increase their share of the global total. The weight of professed religious who are not priests in Africa and Asia exceeds the percentage present in America by 71%. Europe continues to maintain the highest relative share (27.9%), but decreasing compared to 2020.
In 2021, professed women religious represent a total of 608,958 people, approximately 33% present in Europe, followed by Asia which has 175,494 consecrated women and America which reaches 145,206 people. Compared to 2020, the group suffers a decrease of 1.7%. The decrease concerns three continents (Europe, America and Oceania), with even significant negative variations (around -3.5%). Consequently, the fraction of women religious in Africa and Asia on the world total goes from 41.1% to 42.3%, to the detriment of Europe and America, whose incidence as a whole decreases from 57.8% to 56.7%.
The temporal trend for the number of major seminarians that can be observed in the world, starting from 2013, denotes an uninterrupted decrease that continues also in 2021. In this year the consistency of seminarians stands at 109,895 people, distributed for 61% among diocesan seminarians and the remaining 39% among religious. Compared to 2020 there was a decrease of 1.8%. The decrease occurs in almost all territorial divisions: the number of seminarians is expanding only in Africa where an increase of just 0.6% was recorded between 2020 and 2021. In North America there is a rather pronounced downward trend (-5.8% in the two-year period considered). The rest of the American continent, on the other hand, shows a smaller contraction (-1.8%). In Europe and Asia, seminarians suffer a decrease of 5.8% and 1.6%, respectively, in the two-year period. Consequently, a reduction of the role of the European continent in the potential growth of the renewal of the priestly structure can be observed, with a share that passes from 13.6% to just over 13% of the world total. North America has also recorded a decrease in weight, going from a share of 4.6% in 2020 to 4.4% in 2021. The incidence of the rest of the American continent on the world total remains practically unchanged over the two-year period. On the other hand, the weight of Africa and Asia is increasing, which overall reaches 60.1% of all major seminarians. Oceania represents just 0.9% of the total, but with a slight increase.
By equating the number of major seminarians to the amount of the Catholic population, a rate (of vocations) is obtained which sheds even better light on the extent of the level reached by vocations at the end of the two-year period. In 2020 there were 8.23 major seminarians per 100,000 Catholics across the continents and the number at the end of 2021 is 7.99. The most favorable situation is recorded, as regards 2021, in Asia (with 20.96 seminarians per hundred thousand Catholics), in Africa (with 12.75) and in Oceania (8.76). The vocation rate is much lower in the remaining divisions where the value of 5.01 for Europe contrasts with that of 4.13 in South America.
Also in relation to the number of priests present, vocations are declining. If the number of candidates in the world in 2020 was, in fact, equal to 27.27 per 100 priests, in 2021 the quotient drops to 26.94. This indicator, which can be interpreted as a measure of the potential for generational sustainability in effective pastoral service, is diversified by continental area. Comparing, in fact, the values observed in 2021 on the various continents with the threshold value equal to 12.5 seminarians per 100 priests present and such as to guarantee priestly turnover by seminarians, it is noted that at the moment Europe, counting out of less than 9 candidates for every 100 priests in 2021, it remains the only continental area below the replacement percentage, thus confirming the persistence of a situation of decline in priestly vocations, decreased by 888 people since 2020. The continent with the most favorable quotient remains the African one, in which for 100 priests present more than 65 seminarians attend in 2021, philosophy and theology seminarians, and the Asian one (with 44.79 seminarians per 100 priests). At the level of subcontinents, North America is also below the threshold value, with a ratio of seminarians and priests equal to 11.21%.
Source: Vatican News Italian
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