The number of Catholics is increasing on almost all continents – except in Europe. With a “Holy Year” in 2025, Pope Francis wants to bring even more believers to the church.
The number of Catholics worldwide continues to increase. According to official statistics distributed by the Vatican-based ecclesiastical news agency Fides, there are currently around 1.4 billion believers. With the exception of Europe, the numbers are increasing on all continents. The statistics were published with a view to the so-called Holy Year, which will be celebrated in 2025 under Pope Francis, who comes from Argentina. Such anniversary years occur regularly every 25 years.
Accordingly, the number of Catholics at the turn of the year 2022/23 was 1,389,573,000. Compared to the previous twelve months, this represents an increase of almost 14 million. In Africa and the Americas in particular, there was a significant increase of 7.2 million and 5.9 million respectively. In contrast, there was a decrease of 474,000 believers in Europe – due to withdrawals, deaths and fewer baptisms.
According to these figures, the proportion of Catholics in the world population is 17.7 percent. The largest world religion is Christianity, followed by Islam and Hinduism. According to calculations by the United Nations (UN), there are currently around 8.2 billion people living there.
Source: Stern
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