The number of permanent deacons continued to show significant evolutionary dynamics. In 2022, the number improved in all continents at significant rates.
The bottom line: every religious vocation has declined — except for one.
The 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church, edited by the Central Statistical Office of the Church, are currently being distributed in bookstores, published by the Vatican Printing Press.
The Pontifical Yearbook offers information regarding the life of the Catholic Church worldwide for the period ranging from December 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023.
During this period, 9 new Episcopal Sees and 1 Apostolic Administration were established; 2 Episcopal Sees were elevated to Metropolitan Sees and 1 Apostolic Vicariate to an Episcopal See.
The Statistical Yearbook of the Church is filled with statistical data to assess the main trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are a few of the salient details on some basic aspects of the Catholic Church between 2021 and 2022.
The number of baptized Catholics has increased globally, rising from 1.376 billion in 2021 to 1.390 billion in 2022, with a relative increase of 1.0%.
The rate of change varied from continent to continent. Africa recorded an increase of 3%, with the number of Catholics rising from 265 to 273 million in the same period. Europe shows a situation of stability (in 2021 and 2022 Catholics amount to 286 million). The Americas and Asia recorded a significant growth in the number of Catholics (+0.9% and +0.6%, respectively), a trend entirely in line with the demographic development of these two continents. Oceania reported stability, with lower absolute values…
…The year 2022 marked a further decrease in the number of priests compared to the previous year, continuing the downward trend that has characterized the years since 2012.
The global number of priests in the world in 2022, compared to that of 2021, decreased by 142 priests, going from 407,872 to 407,730.
Africa and Asia showed a sustained dynamic (+3.2% and 1.6%, respectively) and the Americas remained almost stationary. Europe, with the greatest weight on the total, and Oceania registered negative variation rates of 1.7 and 1.5 percent, respectively.
The number of permanent deacons continued to show significant evolutionary dynamics.
In 2022, the number of deacons increased by 2% compared to a year earlier, going from 49,176 to 50,150 deacons. The number improved in all continents at significant rates. In Africa, Asia, and Oceania, where they still failed to reach 3% of the total, the number of deacons increased by 1.1%, standing at 1,380 in 2022.
The data also improved in areas where the presence of permanent deacons was quantitatively significant. In the Americas and Europe, where 97.3% of the total population resided, deacons increased in the biennium considered by 2.1 and 1.7 percent, respectively.
