VATICAN (CNS): The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world has shown steady growth, while the number of religious men and women continued to decrease, according to Vatican statistics L’Osservatore Romano reported in an article on March 26.
At the end of 2019, the worldwide Catholic population exceeded 1.34 billion, which continued to be about 17.7 per cent of the world’s population the article said. It marked an increase of 16 million Catholics—a 1.12 per cent increase compared to 2018 while the world’s population grew by 1.08 per cent.
The article contained a handful of the statistics in the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, which reported worldwide church figures as of 31 December 2019. It also announced the publication of the 2021 Annuario Pontificio, which contains information about every Vatican office, as well as every diocese and religious order in the world.
According to the statistical yearbook, the number of Catholics increased in every continent except Europe.
At the end of 2019, 48.1 per cent of the world’s Catholics were living in the Americas, followed by Europe with 21.2 per cent, Africa with 18.7 per cent, about 11 per cent in Asia (all figures for Asia exclude China) and 0.8 percent in Oceania.
The yearbook showed the number of bishops in the world—5,364—dipped slightly with 13 fewer bishops than in 2018. The total number of priests—diocesan and religious—around the world slightly increased from 414,065 in 2018 to 414,336 in 2019.
The largest increases were seen in Africa and Asia, with a growth of 3.45 per cent and 2.91 per cent, respectively, followed by Europe with a 1.5 per cent increase and the Americas with about 0.5 per cent more.
At the end of 2019, 40.6 per cent of the world’s priests were serving in Europe, while 28 per cent of priests were in Africa and Asia.
The number of candidates for the priesthood—both diocesan seminarians and members of congregations—showed a continued slight decline worldwide, decreasing from 115,880 at the end of 2018 to 114,058 in 2019, a change of -1.6 per cent.
The number of permanent deacons reported—48,238—was up 1.5 per cent over the previous year. The vast majority—97 per cent—of the world’s permanent deacons live in the Americas and in Europe.
The number of brothers in religious orders continued its small yet steady decline worldwide from 50,941 in 2018 to 50,295 in 2019.
The number of women in religious congregations showed an ongoing downward trend with a 1.8 per cent decrease, dropping from 641,661 women in 2018 to 630,099 in 2019.
