While the number of priests is decreasing everywhere except in Africa and Asia, the number of Catholics in Europe is increasing, reversing the decline recorded the previous year.
The Catholic Church also has fewer seminarians, and the decline is accelerating in Asian seminaries.
The Vatican agency Fides, the information arm of the Pontifical Mission Societies, published the statistics for 2023, providing an overview of the Church's evolution, based on the number of faithful, priests, seminarians, and religious.
However, the published data does not distinguish between South America and North America, grouping them under the generic term "America," even though the two geographical areas do not represent the same ecclesial realities.
The World Has More Catholics
The world population continues to grow, and so does the number of Catholics, with nearly 16 million more faithful in 2023 compared to the previous year (+0.1% year-on-year). This increase in Catholics is observed on all continents, including Europe, "where there is a reversal of the trend of the previous year, which had seen a decrease in 2022 compared to 2021." Europe has 286 million Catholics, 740,000 more in one year, bringing the proportion of Catholics to nearly 40% of the continent's population.
It is in Africa that the number of Catholics is growing the most (+8,309,000, or 20% of the continent's total population), and in the Americas (+5,668,000, representing 64% of North and South Americans).
In Asia, while the number of Catholics has increased by nearly one million, the proportion of believers has not changed and remains stagnant at 3.3%. In Oceania, the rate has decreased by 1%, with just over 11 million believers out of a total of nearly 44 million inhabitants.
The Church is losing priests despite vocations from Africa.
The number of inhabitants per priest worldwide has increased by 236 people, reaching a total of 15,918 inhabitants per priest. For the past five years, surveys show that the total number of priests is decreasing, reaching 406,996 in 2023, a decrease of 734 priests in one year.
The decline continues in Europe, with 2,486 fewer priests (including religious and diocesan priests). Only Africa (+1,451) and Asia (+1,145) are recording increases.
On average, a European priest serves 1,846 parishioners, while an African priest serves 5,094 Catholics.
In detail, the prospects are negative regarding the evolution of the number of priests. Africa is the only continent where the number of seminarians is increasing (+383), but less strongly than the previous year (+726). Africans represent nearly one in three seminarians.
The figures from Asia are more worrying because the number of seminarians there has fallen by 1,331 to reach 30,436. The previous year, there had been only 375 fewer seminarians.
In Europe, seminaries continue to empty (661 fewer in one year). The number of seminarians stands at 12,800. Globally, the Church has 106,495 seminarians, which is 1,986 fewer candidates for ordination than in 2022.
Increase in the Number of Deacons
The number of religious sisters worldwide continues to decline: there are 589,423 (-9,805). The rare increases are, once again, in Africa (+1,804) and Asia (+46), while the number continues to decrease in Europe (-7,338), the Americas (-4,066), and Oceania (-251).
It should be noted that the number of permanent deacons – that is, men, possibly married, ordained for a particular service in the Church – continues to increase worldwide, reaching 51,433 (+1,234). While this number remains stable in Europe (15,678), it is growing in the Americas, where there are 34,322 permanent deacons, an increase of 1,257.
The figures published by the Fides agency also provide an overview of the educational infrastructure managed by the Church worldwide.
Managing nearly 75,000 kindergartens, 102,000 primary schools, 52,000 secondary schools, and the thousands (number not specified) of universities and higher education institutions, the Church contributes to the education and training of nearly 72 million people.