Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2004
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L'Osservatore Romano
The steady growth of the Catholic Church worldwide
The Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae of 2004, compiled by the Central Office for Statistics of the Church and published by the Vatican Publishing House, has recently been presented.
In comparison with the Annuario Pontificio, in which precedence is given to names and biographies, the Annuario Statistico shows the principal trends that mark the pastoral activity of the Catholic Church in the different countries and various continents.
The tables of statistics, with graphics, are completed by captions in Latin, English and French.
The following is a concise quantitative analysis of the structural changes that have taken place in the pastoral activity of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2004.
Catholics worldwide
From 1978 to 2004, there was a rapid increase in the number of Catholics in the world by more than 45 percent. In the same period, they rose from almost 757 million to 1.098 billion, with an overall increase of about 342 million faithful (Table 1).
Table 1 - Catholics in 1978, 1988 and 2004: geographical distribution per 100 inhabitants — variations over the period
CONTINENT
Catholic Faithful (Baptized)
In thousands
Per 100 of the total
Per 100 inhabitants
Percent of
variation
1978-2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
54,759
81,883
148,817
7.24
9.13
13.55
12.37
13.41
16.97
171.77
AMERICA
366,614
444,422
548,756
48.46
49.55
48.96
62.22
63.50
62.34
49.68
ASIA
63,183
84,302
113,489
8.35
9.40
10.33
2.53
2.78
2.91
79.62
EUROPE
266,361
279,401
278,736
35.21
31.15
25.38
40.53
41.14
39.54
4.65
OCEANIA
5,616
6,870
8,568
0.74
0.77
0.78
25.30
26.83
26.24
52.56
WORLD
756,533
896,878
1,098,366
100.00
100.00
100.00
17.99
17.77
17.19
45.18
This figure, however, looks less impressive when compared with the demographic growth worldwide in the same period that increased from 4.2 billion to 6.4 billion.
Indeed, a slight decrease in the incidence of Catholics across the world can be noted, from almost 18 percent to just over 17 percent. However, these figures sum up situations that differ widely from one continent to another.
In Europe, the visibly stationary situation recorded can be ascribed mainly to the Old Continent's well-known static demographic situation: a sharp decline in its population, currently stable, is forecast for the coming decades. The number of baptized faithful in 2004, slightly less than in 2003, totaled almost 280 million, a little more than 12 million in comparison with 1978 and slightly less in comparison with 1988.
In relative terms too, the number of European Catholics per 100 inhabitants has remained virtually the same: it has fallen from 40.5 to 39.5.
The situation in Africa, where the number of Catholics has almost tripled, is definitely more dynamic. In 1978 they numbered about 55 million and in 2004 their number had risen to almost 149 million.
This trend can be ascribed only in part to strictly demographic factors. It reflects an effective increase in the number of baptized faithful. In fact, Catholics who accounted for 12.4 percent of the African population in 1978, 26 years later represented almost 17 percent.
Intermediate situations between those described above are recorded in America and in Asia, where the numbers of faithful have increased considerably (49.7 percent and 79.6 percent respectively). However, this can be explained by the demographic increase recorded in the same period.
In relative terms, American faithful account for a stable 62 percent of the population, whereas in Asia, the incidence of Catholics increased from 2.5 percent to just under 3 percent in 2004.
The incidence of baptized persons per 100 inhabitants in Oceania is stable even though much lower figures are involved.
Over and above the different demographic dynamics, there is obvious confirmation of the growth of Catholics on the African Continent (here Catholic faithful have increased from 7 percent to more than 13.5 percent of the number in the world), and of the conspicuous fall in the number of Catholics on the European Continent, where the percentage of Catholic faithful of the world total fell from 35 percent in 1978 to 25.4 percent in 2004.
America's position as a Continent to which almost half the world's faithful belong was consolidated.
Bishops worldwide
The number of Bishops in the world increased between 1978 and 2004 by more than 28 percent, rising from 3,714 to 4,784 (Table 2), with a very marked increase in Africa (+45.8 percent), in Oceania (+34 percent) and in Asia (+31.4 percent), whereas in America (+27.2 percent) and in Europe (+23.3 percent) the figures were below average.
In the face of these different dynamics, however, the distribution of Bishops per continent remained substantially stable in the period under review, with a greater concentration of the total number in America and in Europe.
In Africa too, where the number of Bishops started to increase noticeably, the number of Bishops out of the world total rose slightly from 11.6 percent in 1978 to 13.2 percent in 2004.
Table 2 - Bishops in 1978, 1988 and 2004: their geographical distribution and variations over the period
CONTINENT
Bishops
Percentage
of variation
1978-2004
Number
Per 100 of the total
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
432
487
630
11.63
11.80
13.17
45.83
AMERICA
1,416
1,589
1,801
38.13
37.51
37.64
27.19
ASIA
519
578
682
13.97
14.01
14.26
31.41
EUROPE
1,253
1,365
1,545
33.74
33.09
32.30
23.30
OCEANIA
94
107
126
2.53
2.59
2.63
34.04
WORLD
3,714
4,126
4,784
100.00
100.00
100.00
28.81
Attention should be drawn to the ageing of Bishops.
Their average age has increased by more than five years across the world in the period under review, rising from 62 to 67.4 years (a slight ageing with respect to the previous year).
This increase is noticeable especially in Africa (+6.8 years, with an average age in 2004 of 63.6 years), Oceania (+6.8, to 67 years) and America (+6.7, to 67.8 years), whereas Europe, which continues to be in the lead with an average age of over 69, has shown a more contained dynamic.
The most important statistic, however, concerns the increase in the number of over-65-year-olds out of the total. On average they increased from 39 percent to 59 percent in 2004, more than doubling their numbers in Africa (from 22 percent to 46 percent) and increasing consistently also in Oceania and America.
Lastly, in Europe, the number of Bishops who have reached 65 years of age represent 64 percent of the total (compared with 51 percent in 1978).
Priests worldwide
Compared with the increase in the number of Bishops across the world in the period 1978-2004, the statistics for the number of priests overall were rather disappointing, with a decrease of more than 3.5 percent (from about 421,000 to less than 406,000), concentrated in the first part of the specimen period (Table 3).
In point of fact, the number of priests decreased overall by more than 15,000 in 1988. It subsequently stabilized and growth has been recorded in the last decade.
With a counter trend in comparison with the world average, the increase in the number of priests in Africa and Asia is quite comforting, with +85 percent and +74 percent respectively (and with an increase of more than 2,000 only since 2003).
In America, on the other hand, the situation is static, with on average about 120,000 priests.
Finally, Europe and Oceania, which account for the decline in priests across the globe, showed a decrease in 2004 of more than 20 percent and of almost 14 percent, respectively.
If diocesan priests and religious priests are counted separately, the results are very different. Whereas the number of diocesan priests, after falling to a minimum of 257,000 in 1988 compared with 262,000 in 1978, recorded a slight but important recovery (rising to more than 268,000), the number of religious priests showed a constantly downward trend throughout the period under examination (with an overall decrease of more than 13 percent, or a decrease of 20,000).
Moving on to an analysis by continent, it can be noted that religious priests have diminished in number on all the continents (-23.9 percent in Oceania, -20 percent approximately in Europe, -19 percent in America and -4.5 percent in Africa), with the exception of Asia, where from 14,000 they have increased to more than 19,000.
It must be noted, on the other hand, that the decrease recorded for the African Continent, after a reduction of more than 1,300 in 1988, showed a slight recovery of about 8 percent in the second part of the period under discussion.
The very slight increase in the total number of diocesan priests is instead exclusively ascribable to the rapid expansion of the presence of diocesan priests in Africa (where the number of diocesan priests more than tripled between 1978 and 2004), in Asia (where it has doubled), and in America. On the contrary, figures for Oceania and especially for Europe showed a sharp fall.
With regard to the number of priests overall, great changes can be noted on at least two continents.
In Africa, if there were twice as many religious priests as diocesan priests at the beginning of the period, in 2004 there were only slightly more than half the number of diocesan priests.
In Asia, however, in 1978 the two categories were equally represented; but 26 years later, there were over 40 percent more diocesan than religious priests.
The percentage distribution of priests per continent also shows considerable changes during the 26 years under examination.
Table 3 - Diocesan or Religious priests in 1978, 1988 and 2004 per continent: variations over the period
CONTINENT
Priests
1978
1988
2004
Percent variation 1978-2004
Diocesan
Religious
Total
Diocesan
Religious
Total
Diocesan
Religious
Total
Diocesan
Religious
Total
AFRICA
5,507
11,419
16,926
9,184
10,085
19,269
20,358
10,901
31,259
269.67
-4.54
84.68
AMERICA
66,084
54,187
120,271
68,414
50,989
119,403
77,756
43,878
121,634
17.66
-19.02
1.13
ASIA
13,863
13,837
27,700
17,789
14,502
32,291
28,497
19,725
48,222
105.56
42.55
74.09
EUROPE
174,175
76,323
250,498
159,033
69,413
228,446
139,494
60,484
199,978
-19.91
-20.75
-20.17
OCEANIA
2,856
2,720
5,576
2,779
2,669
5,448
2,728
2,070
4,798
-4.48
-23.90
-13.95
WORLD
262,485
158,486
420,971
257,199
147,658
404,857
268,833
137,058
405,891
2.42
-13.52
-3.58
Although Europe has retained the greatest number of priests, the number of priests out of the total has decreased considerably over time: in 1978, the more than 250,000 priests represented almost 60 percent of the total of this group of clergy, while 26 years later, their number had fallen to less than half, not above 50 percent. This is due in particular to the plummeting number of diocesan priests who are now outnumbered by religious priests.
Africa and Asia, on the contrary, have gained ground, attaining overall more than 19 percent of the world total of 10.6 percent in 1978, thanks in particular to the increase in the number of diocesan priests on both continents.
America has continued to maintain about 30 percent, with a slight but continuous increase of its percentage, whereas Oceania continues to be relatively stable, with not much more than 1 percent.
The numbers of the other agents who support the pastoral work of the Bishops and priests — permanent deacons, professed men religious who are not priests and professed women religious — differ widely.
Deacons and Religious
In 2004, there were more than 32,000 permanent deacons and more than 55,000 non-ordained professed men religious. Women religious, who numbered 767,000 were far more numerous. The
dynamics of development in the three groups are very different.
The number of permanent deacons, diocesan and religious, is rapidly increasing, both across the world and on the individual continents. Overall, it has risen from about 5,500 in 1978 to more than 32,000 26 years later, with an increase of more than 480 percent (Table 4).
Table 4 – Permanent deacons in 1978, 1988, and 2004:
Their geographical distribution and variations over the period
Permanent deacons (diocesan and religious)
CONTINENT
Number
Per 100 of the total
Percentageof variation
1978-2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
91
235
368
1.64
1.50
1.14
304.40
AMERICA
4,239
11,489
21,067
76.21
73.24
65.17
396.98
ASIA
52
81
148
0.93
0.52
0.46
184.62
EUROPE
1,133
3,781
10,528
20.37
24.10
32.57
829.21
OCEANIA
47
100
213
0.85
0.64
0.66
353.19
WORLD
5,562
15,686
32,324
100.00
100.00
100.00
481.16
The largest numbers and the most vigorous trend in development are being recorded in Europe and America.
In Europe, there were just over 1,000 deacons in 1978 and in 2004 there were more than 10,000, with an increase of more than 800 percent in 26 years.
In America, there were more than 4,000 permanent deacons at the beginning of the period (almost three quarters of the total number across the globe), and in 2004 they already numbered more than 20,000.
More than 97 percent of the total number of deacons in the world are to be found on these two continents alone. The rest are distributed in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The number of non-ordained professed religious has been steadily falling; it decreased by more than 27 percent between 1978 and 2004 and by 15 percent from 1988 (Table 5).
Table 5 - Professed Religious (non-priests) in 1978, 1988, and 2004:
their geographical distribution and numerical variations
CONTINENT
Professed religious non-priests
Number
Per 100 of the total
Percentage
of variation
1978-2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
5,248
5,495
7,791
6.92
8.50
14.16
48.46
AMERICA
23,747
19,516
16,587
31.33
30.17
30.14
-30.15
ASIA
6,508
6,391
9,028
8.59
9.88
16.40
38.72
EUROPE
37,104
30,681
19,942
48.95
47.43
36.24
-46.25
OCEANIA
3,195
2,603
1,682
4.21
4.02
3.06
-47.36
WORLD
75,802
64,686
55,030
100.00
100.00
100.00
-27.40
In 1978, they numbered more than 75,000 worldwide, there were fewer than 65,000 of them in 1988, and in 2004, only slightly more than 55,000.
This downward trend is common to the various continents with the exception of Africa and Asia, where they have increased by 48 percent and 39 percent respectively. In 2004, they represented overall more than 30 percent of the total (from less than half in 1978).
On the other hand, the group constituted by Europe (-46 percent), America (-30 percent) and Oceania (-47 percent), was almost halved during the period under examination.
There is also a sharp downward trend in the number of professed women religious, with a decrease of more than 22 percent in the specimen period (Table 6).
Table 6 - Professed religious in 1978, 1988 and 2004:
their geographical distribution and numerical variations
CONTINENT
Professed women religious
Number
Per 100 of the total
Percentage
of variation
1978-2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
35,473
40,789
57,475
3.58
4.53
7.49
62.02
AMERICA
300,489
269,967
219,274
30.33
30.01
28.57
-27.03
ASIA
91,585
109,540
150,736
9.24
12.18
19.64
64.59
EUROPE
546,029
465,273
329,898
55.11
51.72
42.99
-39.58
OCEANIA
17,192
14,075
10,076
1.74
1.56
1.31
-41.39
WORLD
990,768
899,644
764,459
100.00
100.00
100.00
-22.54
The overall number of women religious, in fact, has steadily fallen from over 990,000 in 1978 to less than 770,000 26 years later. Also in this case, the decline concerned three continents (Oceania, Europe and America) with substantial decreases (-41 percent in Oceania, -39 percent in Europe and -27 percent in America).
In Africa and Asia, on the other hand, there was a steady increase in the number of women religious, who increased by more than 60 percent on both continents. Consequently, the percentage of women religious in Africa and Asia has grown from 13 percent to about 27 percent of the world total, to the detriment of Europe and America, where their overall incidence has fallen from 87 percent to 73 percent.
Vocations worldwide
The potential for the renewal of pastoral activity depends on a series of factors. The most important is the number of priestly vocations, that is, of candidates to the priesthood, roughly calculated according to the number of students of philosophy and theology attending diocesan and religious seminaries (Table 7).
The overall annual statistics of the number of candidates to the priesthood, diocesan and religious, show a marked upward trend for the total period.
Candidates across the world rose from almost 64,000 in 1978 to more than 113,000 in 2004, with an increase of about 77 percent. The figures were very different on the various continents.
Whereas Africa, America and Asia showed extremely lively dynamics, Europe recorded a decrease of about 2 percent in the same period.
Consequently, a re-dimensioning of the role of the European Continent in the potential growth of the renewal of priests is observed, with a figure that has fallen from 37 percent to 20 percent, compared with the growth in Africa (the number of priests quadrupled in the 26 years under consideration), America and Asia, which in 2004 represented 78 percent overall of the world total (20 percent, 32 percent, and 26 percent, respectively).
The European dynamic in absolute terms can be divided into three distinct periods: growth (24,000 to 30,000) from 1978 to 1985; a period of stability until 1994-95; and finally, a sharp decline that brought the 2004 figures to approximately what they had been 26 years earlier.
America experienced a fairly steady increase in the number of candidates to the priesthood up to 1998: it was subsequently consolidated at around 36,000 to 37,000.
The number of candidates in Africa and Asia is steadily increasing, although the growth rate has slowed in recent years.
In relative terms, with regard to the number of Catholics, greater dynamism was recorded in Asia and Africa, with more than 150 candidates to the priesthood per million faithful in Africa in 2004 and about 257 per million in Asia.
The figures for Europe (84) and for America (67), considerably less than those in 2003 and on the decline, indicate a decrease in the ability to provide for the needs of pastoral service.
Finally, by comparing the number of major seminarians per 100 priests, it is possible to form an idea of the potential for the renewal of effective pastoral service down the generations.
Africa and Asia are also in the lead in this realm with more than 72 and 60 candidates respectively, whereas Europe had less than 12 candidates per every 100 priests in 2004, confirming a period of stagnation in vocations to the priesthood (which have increased by only 2 since 1978).
At a global level, however, from 15 candidates to the priesthood per 100 in 1978, the number rose to just short of 28 in 2004, largely thanks to the contributions of Asia and Africa.
Table 7 - Candidates to the priesthood in 1978, 1988 and 2004: their geographical distribution,
variations over the period, indication of priestly vocations
CONTINENT
Candidates to the priesthood
Number
Per 100 of the total
Percent variation
1978-2004
Per one million Catholics
Per 100 priests
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
1978
1988
2004
AFRICA
5,636
12,636
22,791
8.82
13.42
20.16
304.38
102.92
154.32
153.15
33.30
65.58
72.91
AMERICA
22,011
31,010
36,681
34.45
32.94
32.45
66.65
60.04
69.78
66.94
18.30
25.97
30.16
ASIA
11,536
19,090
29,220
18.06
20.28
25.85
153.29
182.58
226.45
257.47
41.65
59.12
60.59
EUROPE
23,915
30,581
23,401
37.44
32.48
20.70
-2.15
89.78
109.45
83.95
9.55
13.39
11.70
OCEANIA
784
831
951
1.23
0.88
0.84
21.30
139.60
120.96
110.99
14.06
15.25
19.82
WORLD
63,882
94,148
113,044
100.00
100.00
100.00
79.96
84.44
104.97
102.92
15.17
23.25
27.85
Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
14 July 2004, page 5
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