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The worldwide number of Catholics is increasing, only in Europe there is a downward trend. 1.34 Billion Catholics counted the universal Church at the end of 2019, which was 15.4 million more than the year before, according to the annual statistics of the Vatican information service “Fides” (Thursday). The occasion for the publication is the upcoming World Mission Day on Sunday. The proportion of Roman Catholics in the world population thus rose again slightly to 17.74 percent. Only in Europe was there a significant drop in Catholics of 292,000.
A similar picture emerged for the number of Catholic priests worldwide as of the end of 2019. Compared to the previous year, the number of priests rose by 271 to a total of 414,336. Only in Europe was there a significant decrease of 2,608 priests. The largest increase, however, was recorded on the Asian continent with a plus of 1,989 priests. The situation was exactly the opposite for permanent deacons. Here the number in Europe rose to a total of 15,267, while in Asia, for example, it fell to 343.
However, due to the significantly stronger growth in the number of Catholics, each priest was responsible for more faithful at the end of 2019 than in the previous year. Overall, one priest was responsible for an average of 3,245 Catholics worldwide. Here, the numbers vary between Europe, where there is a statistical average of 1,697 Catholics for every priest, and the Americas, with 5,318 Catholics per priest. The number of bishops worldwide during the period was 5,364, a slight double-digit decrease from the previous year.
Worldwide, the Catholic Church operates 72,667 kindergartens with about 7.5 million children in care, according to the statistics. In addition, there are 98,925 elementary schools with about 35.2 million boys and girls, and 49,552 secondary schools with about 19.4 million students.
–source: erzdiozese-wien.at/picture: pixabay.com
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