Catholic population in Oceania increases to 12.8m

The Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2024, compiled by the Central Office of Church Statistics of the Secretariat of State, reported that, in 2024, the world Catholic population stood at just over 1.422 billion, compared with about 1.406 billion in 2023 – an increase of 1.14 per cent.

Catholics in Oceania made up 0.9 per cent of the global total. This equates to about 12.8 million.

The number of Catholics in Africa rose from just over 281 million in 2023 to over 288 million in 2024, by far the largest increase in percentage terms.

The percentage of Catholics in the world population overall remained stable at approximately 17.8 per cent.

In terms of the ratio of Catholics to population, in Oceania 25.9 per cent of the population is Catholic. The figures for the other continents are 64.0 per cent in the Americas, 39.7 per cent in Europe, 19.9 per cent in Africa and 3.3 per cent in Asia.

In 2024, there were 465,048 clerics worldwide, including 5525 bishops, 407,421 priests and 52,102 permanent deacons.

Between 2023 and 2024, the number of bishops increased by 1.75 per cent, from 5430 to 5525. Europe and the Americas together continue to account for about 68 per cent of all bishops.

Baptisms in 2024 numbered 13,065,918 distributed as follows: Americas 40.7 per cent, Africa 31.7 per cent, Asia 15.6 per cent, Europe 11.1 per cent, Oceania 0.9 per cent.

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New data of Annuario Pontificio 2026 shows Catholics growing in Africa (Vatican News)