As it is the only English translation available of the Vatican communique on the latest statistical data about the Catholic Church worldwide, I am using an adapted version of the report that appears in RV's English service (which, it seems remains populated by seemingly unsupervised amateurs).
Latest statistics about the Church
Africa and Asia continue to show growth in the number of faithful and in vocations
but Europe and the Americas continue to decline, except in deacons
Adapted from the English service of
May 13, 2013
The number of Catholics globally remains largely unchanged at 1.214 billion, rising only slightly higher than global population growth for the 2010/2011 period.
The number of priests (religious and diocesan) has grown, largely thanks to a rise in vocations in Asia and Africa which has helped balance the continued decline in Europe (-9% in the last decade).
The same cannot be said for the number of professed women religious which dropped by 10% over the past decade. But, perhaps the most surprising statistic revealed was the boom in vocations to the permanent diaconate, particularly in Europe and the US, where numbers have increased by over 40% in the past decade.
The figures are found in the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae,and the better known 2013 Pontifical Yearbook, which is the international directory of the Catholic Church.
[It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments. It also gives complete lists, with contact information, of the cardinals and Catholic bishops throughout the world, the dioceses (with statistics about each), the departments of the Roman Curia, the Holy See's diplomatic missions abroad, the embassies accredited to the Holy See, the headquarters of religious institutes (again with statistics on each), certain academic institutions, and other similar information. The index includes, along with all the names in the body of the book, those of all priests who have been granted the title of "Monsignor".]
The two books were presented to the Holy Father Monday morning by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and his deputy for General Affairs Archbishop Angelo Becciu. Both books are edited by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, head of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Church, with Prof. Enrico Nenna and other collaborators.
The Holy Father expressed his gratitude for the
tribute [What tribute? These are annual compendia of Church statistics and personnel, which is always presented first to the Pope before it is released], showing a keen interest in the figures illustrated therein and expressing deep gratitude to all those who have contributed to the new edition of the two yearbooks.
The data recorded reveals new statistics relating to the life of the Catholic Church in the world, in the course of
2012 and until the election of Pope Francis. [
DIM=8pt][No, the Vatican communique clearly says the statistics are for calendar year 2011, and anyone familiar with the Annuario, as the RV staff ought to be, knows that the current edition can only report complete statistics for the penultimate completed calendar year, since statistical collection for a calendar year theoretically takes place during the successive calendar year.=, e.g., the 2013 edition reports 2011 data whose collection took place and was completed in 2012. This RV report also mxes up its references to the two voulmes which are distinct in that the pontifical yearbook is a directory of names, functions and addresses, whereas the statistical yearbook has all the statistical data.][/DIM]
In 2011, 11 new Episcopal Sees, 2 Personal Ordinariates, 1 Apostolic Vicariate and 1 Apostolic Prefecture were erected; 1 Territorial Prelature was elevated to the rank of Diocese and 2 Apostolic Exarchates to Eparchies.
The number of Catholics worldwide rose from 1.196 billion in 2010 to 1.214 billion in 2011, an increase of 1.5% and since this growth is only slightly higher than that of the Earth's population (1.23%), the presence of Catholics in the world remains essentially unchanged (17.5%).
Territorial analysis of changes from 2010 to 2011 show an increase of 4.3% of Catholics in Africa, which only had a general population increase of 2.3%. Asia also registered an increase in the number of Catholics that was higher than that of the general population (2.0% versus 1.2%).
The percentage of Catholics in America and Europe remained stable, in line with population growth (0.3%). In 2011, the total number of baptized Catholics distributed across the continents was: 16.0% in Africa, 48.8% in the Americas, 10.9% in Asia, 23.5% in Europe and 0.8% in Oceania.
The number of bishops in the world increased, from 5,104 in 2010 to 5,132 in 2011, with a relative increase of 0.55%. The increase particularly involved Oceania (4.6%) and Africa (+1.0%), while Asia and Europe are slightly above the global average. America did not register any changes.
Given these different dynamics, however, the distribution of Bishops across the various continents remained largely stable over the 2010-2011 period, with America and Europe continuing to represent nearly 70 percent of the total.
Globally, the presence of the diocesan and religious priests has increased over time, growing in the last decade from 405,067 units as of December 31, 2001, to 413,418 as of December 31, 2011 (+2.1%). This evolution was not, however, uniform in different geographical areas.
The dynamics of the number of priests in Africa and Asia is somewhat comforting, with a +39.5% and +32.0% respectively (and with an increase of over 3,000
units [the RV report uses the term 'units' - these are not units, these are actual persons - priests, in fact!]for the two continents, in 2011 alone), while America remains stationary with an around an average of 122,000 total
units [Why can't they just be called 'priests'? It's not as if each 'unit' could possibly be two-individuals-in-one or even a 'trinity'!]] Europe, in contrast to the global average, has seen a decrease of more than 9% [in the total number of priests] in the past decade.
Permanent deacons are booming both globally and in each region, from a total of more than 29,000 in 2001 to about 41,000
units ]
In this case, call them 'deacons', OK?] a decade later, with a variation of more than 40%. Europe and America registered both the most numerically significant and vibrant trend.
In fact, the European deacons, little more than 9,000
units in 2001, were almost 14,000 in 2011, an increase of over 43%. In America the number grew from 19,100
units in 2001 to more than 26,000 in 2011. These two continents, alone, account for 97.4% of the global total, with the remaining 2.6% split between Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Professed religious males who are not priests numbered over 55,000
units in 2011, with Africa and Asia registering increases of +18.5% and +44.9%, respectively. In 2011 these two continents together accounted for over 36% of the total (compared to less than 28% in 2001). In contrast, the numbers registered in Europe (-18%), America (-3.6%) and Oceania (-21.9%) dropped by almost 8 percentage points over the last decade.
A strong downward trend was observed in data for professed women religious, with a decrease of 10% from 2001 to 2011. From 792,000 in 2001, the number in 2011 was just over 713,000. The decline was registered in Europe, America and Oceania (-22% in Europe, -21% in Oceania and -17% in America).
In Africa and Asia, however, there has been a sustained increase,by more than 28% in Africa, and 18% in Asia. Consequently, the percentage represented by professed religious women in Africa and Asia increased from 24.4% to about 33% of the global total, while their numbers in Europe and America dropped from 74% of the global total to 66% respectively by a total of 74% to 66%.
Candidates for diocesan and religious priesthood increased by 7,5% globally, from 112,244 in 2001 to 120,616 in 2011. Africa (+30.9%) and Asia (+29.4%) showed a lively growth, but Europe and America recorded a decline of 21.7% and of 1.9%, respectively.