The proportion of Catholics in the world population is decreasing slightly. This emerges from detailed statistics published by the Vatican news agency Fides on Friday.
The Vatican has published the new Pontifical Yearbook for 2023 and the Church Statistical Yearbook for 2021. Both works provide information on important developments in…
After that, the number of Catholics continues to increase – by more than 16 million compared to 2020. But at the same time, their percentage in the world population is slightly decreasing. In total, there are approximately 1.38 billion Catholics worldwide; This makes them 17.67% of the global population.
Fides statistics are based on Vatican figures, published in less detail in the Holy See’s “Statistical Yearbook” at the beginning of 2023. The Catholic Church is growing on all continents – most strongly in Africa and North America and in the South. In Europe alone it is decreasing, by 244,000 people in the period observed.
Catholic nuns
Significant decline in female orders
The number of priests (diocesan or religious) is also decreasing slightly: according to the latest figures, it stands at 407,872 priests. In Europe, the number of priests fell the most (around 3,600 people); However, there are still more priests here than on other continents. Numbers are also decreasing among bishops (who currently number 5,340) and religious. It is notable that the number of male orders only fell by 795, but that of women’s orders fell significantly more at 10,588.
(fides –sk)