…Africa records 9M increase in one year
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria currently lead the continent with 55 and 35 million, respectively as the number of Catholic faithful continue to rise in Africa.
According to the 2025 published Pontifical Yearbook by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2023, the global Catholic population increased by 1.15 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
The data was compiled by the Central Office of Church Statistics, a department of the Secretariat of State.
According to the LEV, the number increased from approximately 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion, a percentage very similar to the previous biennium.
The distribution of baptized Catholics varies in the various geographic areas, in accordance with the different demographics of each continent.
The data reported in the Pontifical Yearbook offers information regarding the life of the Catholic Church worldwide for 2024.
Africa accounts for about 20 percent of the global Catholics population, which is characterized by a spread of the Catholic Church across the continent.
According to the LEV data, the number of Catholics increased from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023, with a relative variation of +3.31 per cent.
The Democratic Republic of Congo confirms its first-place position for the number of baptized Catholics, with almost 55 million, followed by Nigeria with 35 million; Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya also register significant figures.
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With a growth of 0.9 percent over the biennium, the Americas currently hold 47.8 percent of the world’s Catholics.
Of these, 27.4 percent reside in South America (where Brazil, with 182 million, represents 13 percent of the world total and continues to be the country with the highest concentration of Catholics), 6.6 percent in North America, and the remaining 13.8 percent in Central America.
When the number of Catholics is compared to the total population, Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay stand out, with a Catholic incidence exceeding 90 percent of the population.
Asia records a 0.6 percent growth over the biennium, and its weight in 2023 is around 11% percent of the global Catholic population.
According to the LEV, in 2023, 76.7 percent of Southeast Asian Catholics are concentrated in the Philippines, with 93 million, and in India, with 23 million.
Europe with 20.4 percent of the world Catholic community is the least dynamic area, with a 0.2 percent increase in the number of Catholics over the biennium.
The data from Europe, translates into a slight improvement in territorial presence, in the face of an almost stagnant demographic dynamic, which reaches nearly 39.6 per cent in 2023.
According to the LEV data, Italy, Poland, and Spain boast a Catholic incidence exceeding 90 per cent of the resident population.
The Catholics in Oceania recorded an increase of about 1.9 per cent between 2022 and 2023, accounting for about 11 million.
