The following comes from an April 6 story on Crux.
New statistics released by the Vatican on Thursday show that Africa continues to position itself as the future axis of Catholicism, with the number of baptized Catholics on the continent growing at a significantly faster rate than anywhere else in the world.
According to the numbers released on Thursday by the Vatican’s press office, Catholicism has grown globally from 1.272 billion in 2014 to 1.285 in 2015. This represents a 1 percent annual growth, and 17.7 percent of the world’s population.
The data, compiled by the Vatican’s Central Office for Church Statistics, were published in the Statistical Yearbook of the Church and the Annuario Pontificio 2017, the Vatican’s yearbook.
Growth varies radically from one continent to another. While in Africa the Catholic population grew by 19.4 percent, it’s remained stable in Europe. If anything, it’s decreasing on the so-called “Old Continent,” where the birth rate is low and population is projected to decrease in upcoming years, with more people dying than being born in several countries.
Globally, there were 136 fewer priests in 2015 than the year before. However, expanding the date range from 2010 to 2015 and drilling deeper, it becomes evident that the variation is, once again, striking from one continent to another: While Europe lost 2,502 priests, Africa and Asia gained over 1,000 each.
The number of priestly vocations is also decreasing, going from 99.5 seminarians for every one million Catholics in 2010, to 90.9 two years ago. Once again, it changes from one continent to the other, with Africa having a surplus while there’s a decrease in Europe and in the Middle East.
Drastically different is the growth of permanent deacons, which saw a 14 percent increase in five years. However, 98 percent of them are in Europe and America.
Card. Sarah for Pope !!
The statistics in this article, while interesting, are incomplete for a full understanding of the picture. The article cites percentage increases without including the ‘base’ numbers. An increase of 19.4% from a base of one thousand is significantly different from an equal percentage increase from a base of ten million.
According to the Vatican’s annual report there are about 1.285 billion Catholics in the world, of which 17.3% are in Africa. That means that Africa has about 222 million Catholics.