The world’s Catholic population is on the rise at the same time the number of priests has fallen, a report released Thursday by the Vatican shows.
The figures from Rome – contained in he 2025 Pontifical Yearbook – note the global Catholic populace increased between 2022 and 2023 by 1.15 percent from around 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion.
Conversely, by the end of 2023, there were 406,996 priests, a 0.2 percent decrease of 734 compared to 2022.
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UPI sets out some of the rises and decreases around the world noting the decrease in seminarians:
Africa, home to 20% of the Catholics on Earth, is where the largest increase was measured, as their number increased to 281 million in 2023 from from 272 million in 2022.
The decrease in the number of priests occurred mainly in Europe, the Oceania region and what the Vatican called “America,” which combined for a -3.3% drop. Africa has seen a gain of close to 3.3% in diocesan priests and 1.4% in religious priests.
The count of overall bishops in the Catholic Church has grown over the last two years by 1.4%, to 5,430 in 2023 from 5,353 in 2022, but the biggest increase was in permanent deacons, which went up by 2.6% to 51,433 from 50,150.
When the overall number of Catholics is compared to the total population, Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay stand out, with a Catholic incidence exceeding 90 percent of the population.
The news of the state of the Catholic church comes as Pope Francis ’ condition continued to improve Wednesday and he hasn’t needed to use the mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe, the Vatican said in signalling further progress in his recovery from double pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pontiff is also reducing his reliance on high-flow supplemental oxygen during the day, the Vatican said in a medical bulletin. His pneumonia infection, while not completely eliminated, is under control, the Holy See press office said.
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