The world’s Catholic population has grown, but the number of priests, religious, and seminarians has declined, the latest officials statistics show.

At the end of 2020— the last year for which full statistics are available— there were 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, making up nearly 18% of the world’s population. The Catholic population had risen by slightly over 1% from the previous year— about the same as overall population growth.

However, the number Catholic priests in the world had fallen by 1%, to 410,219. The number of women religious had declined by 1.5%, to 619,546. And the number of students at major and minor seminaries had fallen at about the same rate, to 207,254.


The statistics show the Catholic population growing fastest in Africa and Asia, while lagging in Europe. Africa and Asia also showed an increase in the number of priests (and, in Africa’s case, religious and seminarians as well), while the steepest declines were in Europe and the Americas (which the Vatican treats as a single unit).


The Fides news service posts the latest statistics each year before World Mission Sunday, which will be observed this year on October 23.