Report: World's Catholic population grows, but number of priests declines
- The global Catholic population increased by 1.15% from approximately 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion between 2022 and 2023.
- The number of priests declined by 0.2%, resulting in 406,996 priests at the end of 2023.
- The number of bishops grew by 1.4%, increasing from 5,353 to 5,430 bishops during the same period.
- The number of seminarians decreased globally by 1.8%, from 108,481 to 106,495.
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Although it became a minority, Catholicism recomposed itself around important media figures and a rather urban and bourgeois minority, becoming more conservative, more individualistic and moving away from parishes to expand their influence.
Latest official Church statistics report overall Catholic population growth, but decline in priests, seminarians, and religious vocations
CV NEWS FEED // The Vatican has released the latest official statistics on Catholics across the globe, revealing that the overall number of Catholics went from… The post Latest official Church statistics report overall Catholic population growth, but decline in priests, seminarians, and religious vocations appeared first on CatholicVote org.

Worldwide Catholic population hits 1.4 billion
Young men attending the encounter with youth with Pope Francis at the Sir John Guise Stadium, Papua New Guinea, Sept. 9, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA Vatican City, Mar 21, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA). The “2025 Annuario Pontificio” and the “2023... [...]
Data from the Vatican Statistical Yearbook for the 2023 biennium have been released. The number of Catholics in the world is increasing, reaching 1.406 billion. Bishops and priests are still growing in Asia (+1.6%), but the decline in seminarians has risen to 4.2%. Southeast Asia is among the few regions where religious women are slightly increasing. In Asia, 30% of the nuns and 18.2% of the world's priests live.
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