For every 100 people, 18 are Catholic. And that number continues to grow. The Vatican's most recent statistics show that from 2013 to 2014, there has been an increase of 18 million Catholics in the world. In total, worldwide, there are 1.2 billion.
Between 2005 and 2014, Africa was the continent with the most baptisms, which created a 41 percent increase of Catholics.
The number of priests has also increased by 9,000, creating a worldwide total of 416,000. In addition, the number of seminarians has increased by 2,500, creating a total of 117,000. The generational shift for priests continues to be a problem in Europe, where there are only 10 candidates per 100 priests. Meanwhile, Africa and Asia have 66 and 54 candidates for every 100.
The number of religious men have only slightly decreased, meanwhile, for religious women, the decline is more pronounced.
In 2005, there were 54,700 religious men, while in 2014, there were 54,500. In the same period, the number of religious women has dropped by 70,000, or about 10.2% less. Currently, there are 683,000.
In total, Christians, not only Catholics, make up 31.4% of the world's population, followed by Muslims with 23.2% and Hindus with 15% .
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