Worldwide Catholic Population Hits 1.4bn

The “2025 Annuario Pontificio” and the “2023 Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae” have been released, providing a detailed analysis of the life of the Catholic Church globally.

Both reports, prepared by the Vatican’s Central Office for Church Statistics, disclosed a notable growth of the Catholic population worldwide during the two-year period 2022-2023.

Concretely, there has been a 1.15% increase in the global Catholic population, going from approximately 1.39 billion Catholics in 2022 Africa has registered the greatest growth, with the Catholic population on the continent increasing by 3.31%, from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023.

This growth is particularly dynamic, with countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, which leads the region with nearly 55 million Catholics, and others such as Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, which have also experienced significant increases in the number of faithful.

Africa currently represents 20% of the world’s Catholic population.

Meanwhile, the Americas continue to be the region of the world with the highest proportion of Catholics, accounting for 47.8% of the global total.

This increase is moderate, with a growth of 0.9% over the period.

In South America, Brazil remains the country with the largest number of Catholics, with 182 million, representing 13% of the world’s total.

Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay stand out with more than 90% of their population being Catholic.

In terms of distribution, 27.4% of Catholics in the Americas reside in South America, while 6.6% are in North America and 13.8% in Central America.

In Asia, the Catholic population grew by 0.6% between 2022 and 2023.

Although the region represents only 11% of the world’s total Catholics, countries such as the Philippines and India register significant numbers, with 93 million Catholics in the Philippines and 23 million in India, corresponding to 76.7% of the total Catholic population in Southeast Asia.

Europe, home to 20.4% of the world’s Catholics, remains the least dynamic continent in terms of Catholic growth.

The European Catholic population increased by only 0.2% between 2022 and 2023, reflecting a near-stagnant dynamic.

Italy, Poland, and Spain continue to be countries with a high proportion of Catholics, with more than 90% of their population identifying as Catholic.

However, the European continent continues to demonstrate a slower rate of growth and increasing secularization.

In Oceania, the Catholic population experienced an increase of 1.9%, with a total population of just over 11 million Catholics in 2023.

Although this growth is moderate, it reflects steady growth in this region.