The Numbers

In honor of the 2011 Annuario Pontificio (a yearbook containing information about every Vatican office, every cardinal and bishop, every diocese and religious order in the world), I thought I would go over some interesting statistical numbers, and maybe see a little of the state of the Church.

During the year 2010:

• 10 new diocese were erected (bringing the total number of dioceses and Church jurisdictions to 2,956).
• 1.18 billion total Catholics (an increase from 1.16 billion- or 15 million- from last year).
• The growth rate of Catholics increased by 1.3%, surpassing the increase in world population which is 1.1%.
• 49.4% of all Catholics live in the Americas (while only 13.6% of the world's population lives there).
• Increase in various ordained vocations: Bishops- 5,065 from 5,002; Priests- 410,593 from 405,178 (an increase everywhere except Europe); Permanent Deacons- 38,155 (an increase of more than 1,000. 98% of the permanent deacons live in the Americas or in Europe).
• Women religious decreased by 10,000 to 729,371.

But the Vatican isn't the only source of statistical information as of late. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has some pretty interesting numbers that you should check out here.

Currently in the U.S.:

• 33% of parishes are home to more than 1,200 families; 28% to 550-1,200; 24% to 201-249; and 15% to <201. This is a switch from 2000, which had the opposite numbers.

"The current average number of registered households in U.S. parishes is 1,167, compared to 855 in 2000. The number of parishes celebrating four or more Saturday Vigil or Sunday Masses has increased from 44% in 2000 to a majority, 51%, in 2010. On average, 52% of seating capacity at these Masses is filled for Saturday Vigil or Sunday Masses. Parishes have an average of five weekday Masses each week."

"Nine in ten or more parishes offer sacramental preparation (93%) and religious education for children (93%). The next most common ministries are RCIA (85%), marriage preparation (84%), religious education for adolescents (83%), ministry to the infirm and homebound (83%), and adult faith formation (80%)."

"The percentage of registered parishioners who are Hispanic or Latino(a) increased by 4% points while the percentage of these parishioners who are non-Hispanic white dropped 4% points. 33% of parishes celebrate Mass in a language other than English, compared to 22% in 2000. Spanish is the most common language other than English used at Mass (22% of all parishes), followed by Vietnamese, Italian, Tagalog, Portuguese, and Latin. One in five parishes indicates that at least some of their ministries and programs are provided in Spanish. Four in ten parishes reported that they have special observation (feasts, devotions, other celebrations) for particular ethnic or cultural groups. The most common of these is a celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (19% of all parishes)."

I think these numbers show that Pope Benedict XVI's worries about Europe are justified, though we won't see the effects of his visits for at least 4 years (in regards to statistical numbers). The Catholic Church seems to be withstanding the attack being unleashed upon her from within and without. What I enjoy is the increase in the size of parishes, as well as the obvious influence of Hispanic immigrants. Parishes in America have responded quickly to the increase in Spanish speakers, instead of being slow to change from English-only services.

What do you read from these statistics?