Catholic Statistics

2005-2018

Introduction

» Data is taken from the Annuario Pontificio. » View the Data Summary.

Key Points

Over the period 2005 to 2014, the Catholic Population increased from 1.115 Billion to 1.272 Billion (from 17.3% to 17.8% of the world population). By 2018, it had increased further to 1.329 Billion.
Africa also saw the largest growth of the Catholic population in percentage terms (41%).
Priesthood Numbers: In Africa and Asia there were increases of 32.6 per cent and 27.1 per cent respectively, whereas in Europe the number declined by 8 per cent, and in Oceania by 1.7 per cent.

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

Note:
1. In 1910, nearly two-thirds of all Catholics were to be found in Europe.
Source: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/

Note:
1. The European Catholic population (not shown) increased by 2% over the period 2005 to 2014.

Note:
1. The number of Bishops increased from 4,841 to 5,377 over the period 2005 to 2018.
2. 97.5% of Permanent Deacons are based in either North America or Europe.

Note:
1. There were 120,616 seminarians in 2011 against 116,939 in 2014.

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The Surveys

Latest Survey News

American Catholic Statistics (1965-2021) Updated 30 Oct 2022

Catholic Statistics (2005-2018) Posted 12 Apr 2020