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).

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

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
 

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

Table 5 - Professed Religious (non-priests) in 1978, 1988, and 2004:
their geographical distribution and numerical variations

Table 6 - Professed religious in 1978, 1988 and 2004: 
their geographical distribution and numerical variations

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