This is the result of a survey of data from 1998 to 2022 by the Church's central statistics office, which was published on Thursday by the Vatican press service Fides.
According to the study, the number of Catholics rose from around 1.02 billion to almost 1.39 billion in these 25 years.
Combined with the increase in the global population, this corresponds to a share of 17.4 to 17.7 per cent, which has remained largely stable since 2015.
Unusual phenomenon
In contrast, the number of baptisms fell from 17,932,891 in 1998 to 13,327,037 in 2022. There are various reasons for this phenomenon, Fides explained to the Catholic News Agency (KNA).
For example, the ageing world population and a decline in the birth rate, which means there are fewer infant baptisms, are responsible.
Re-entries and conversions from another Christian denomination to the Catholic Church could also be reasons for the deviating figures.
If a Christian from another church wants to become Catholic, they are not usually re-baptised. This also applies to re-baptisms.
There are also
purely technical reasons for the difference. Not every baptism is
officially registered and reported to Rome.
The same applies to deaths.
Europe continues to bring up the rear
Unsurprisingly, another trend continues in the current survey: In 2022, the Catholic Church recorded increases in most continents, but not in Europe.
In fact, the decline in membership there almost doubled compared to the previous year: from -244,000 to -474,000.
Although slightly lower than in 2021, Africa (+7.27 million) and the Americas as a whole (+5.91 million) recorded the highest increases.
In Asia, the number of Catholics rose by 889,000, while the increase in Oceania doubled year-on-year from 55,000 to 123,000 people.
Continuing decline in the number of priests and religious
The downward trend in ordained personnel continued in 2022. The number of diocesan priests fell by a total of 439, while religious priests recorded an increase of 297.
For both groups, Europe also recorded the largest decline among the continents (-2,745), followed by the Americas (-164) and Oceania (-69). There were increases in Africa (+1,676) and Asia (+1,160).
While the number of members of Catholic religious orders also continued to fall, one ordained ministry recorded an increase: the number of permanent deacons rose by 974.
In this case, Europe is partly responsible for this: with an increase of 255, it follows the leader America (+697).