Catholic population increases by 16 million faithful to 1,406 million in 2023

The Pontifical Annuario 2025 and the Annuarium Statistics Ecclesiae 2023 have been recently published, providing a detailed analysis of the life of the Catholic Church globally. Both reports, prepared by the Central Statistics Office of the Church, reveal a notable expansion of the Catholic population in the world during the 2022-2023 biennium.

In particular, there has been an increase of 1.15% in the world Catholic population, from approximately 1,390 million Catholics in 2022 to 1,406 million in 2023.

Notable growth in Africa and Latin America

The African continent is the one that has shown the greatest growth in relative terms. The Catholic population in Africa increased by 3.31%, from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023. This growth is particularly dynamic, with countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which leads the region with almost 55 million Catholics, and others such as Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, which have also experienced significant increases in the number of faithful. Africa currently represents 20% of the world Catholic population.

On the other hand, America consolidated its position as the continent with the highest proportion of Catholics, with 47.8% of the world total. This increase is moderate, with a 0.9% growth in the period. In South America, Brazil remains the country with the highest number of Catholics, with 182 million, which represents 13% of the world total. Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay stand out for having more than 90% of their Catholic population. As for distribution, 27.4% of Catholics in America reside in South America, while 6.6% are in North America and 13.8% in Central America.

Situation in Asia, Europe and Oceania

In Asia, the Catholic population grew by 0.6% between 2022 and 2023. Although the region represents only 11% of the world’s world of Catholics, countries such as the Philippines and India have a significant presence, with 93 million Catholics in the Philippines and 23 million in India, which corresponds to 76.7% of the total Catholic in Southeast Asia.

Europe, which houses 20.4% of world Catholics, remains the least dynamic continent in terms of Catholic growth. The European Catholic population increased only 0.2% between 2022 and 2023, reflecting an almost stagnant demographic dynamic. Italy, Poland and Spain continue to be countries with a high proportion of Catholics, with more than 90% of its population identifying as Catholic. However, the European continent continues to face a lower growth rate and a growing secularization.

In Oceania, the Catholic population also experienced a slight increase of 1.9%, with a total population of just over 11 million Catholics in 2023. Although growth is moderate, it reflects constant growth in this region.

Increase in the number of bishops and priests

The number of bishops has also experienced a global increase, increasing 1.4% between 2022 and 2023. The total number of bishops went from 5,353 in 2022 to 5,430 in 2023. This growth has occurred on all continents, except in Oceania, where the number of bishops remained constant. Most of the increase has been observed in Africa and Asia, with more modest variations in Europe and America.

As for the priests, the Catholic Church globally recorded a slight decrease in its number, with a 0.2% reduction, from 407,730 priests in 2022 to 406,996 in 2023. However, in Africa and Asia significant increases in the number of priests have been recorded, with an increase of 2.7% in Africa and 1.6% in Asia. In Europe and Oceania, on the contrary, a decrease in the number of priests (-1.6% in Europe, -1.0% in Oceania) has been observed.

Worldwide, the number of priests per 259,000 Catholics reflects regional disparities. While in Africa and America the ratio is higher, in Oceania, for example, the number of priests for each Catholic is much lower, which suggests a relative excess of priests compared to other regions.

Decreased religious and religious

In the field of religious and religious, there has been a continuation of the downward trend in the number of non -priest and religious professors professed in the world. The decrease in religious and religious was 1.6% between 2022 and 2023, from 599,228 to 589,423. Although the number has decreased globally, Africa has registered a slight increase of 2.2% in the number of religious, while in Europe, North America and Latin America there has been a significant reduction.

As for the geographical distribution, Europe continues to be the continent with the largest number of religious, representing almost 32% of religious in the world in 2023, followed by Asia with 30% and America with 23%. In Africa, the presence of religious remains important, with 14% of the world total.

The decrease in priestly vocations

Finally, one of the most relevant phenomena is the decrease in the number of seminarians, which has continued in a trend of falling since 2012. At the global level, the number of seminarians decreased 1.8% between 2022 and 2023, from 108,481 to 106,495. This decrease has mainly affected Europe, Asia and America, while Africa has registered a slight increase of 1.1% in the number of seminarians.

In comparative terms, Africa and Asia represent 61.4% of all seminarians in the world, a small increase with respect to 61% in 2022. In Europe and America, however, the proportion of seminarians has decreased, which reflects a growing tendency towards the shortage of priestly vocations in these regions.