American Catholic Statistics

Introduction

Key Points

• Over the period surveyed (1965 to 2025), the number of priests fell by around 40%. However, the Catholic population over this period grew by nearly 50%.
  
  
• The number of permanent deacons has grown rapidly since 1975 (the first year for which figures are available) and the 2025 figure of 18,425 now means that there is approximately 1 deacon for every 2 priests.
  
  
• As of 2021, only 65% of diocesan priests are active in ministry (a fall of 30% since 1965).
  
  
• The number of Catholics has grown by 44.3 million to 66.3 million. Other estimates give a figure of self-identified Catholics as 73.7 million with about 20% of these being foreign born.
  
  
• In 2025, 4.3 million persons were adult converts to the Catholic faith - an increase of nearly 50%.
  
  
• The number of religious brothers has declined from 12,096 to 3,290 (approx 73%). The corresponding figures for religious sisters are 178,740 and 33,135 (approx 80%).

Hover over each point/bar or slice for the corresponding value for each year shown.