The latest Vatican figures show that the Catholic Church in Africa continues to defy the trend of declining European churches by sustaining robust growth in both membership and vocations.
According to the Pontifical Yearbook 2025 and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2023, published by the Vatican in March 2025, Africa recorded a net gain of 1,285 priests in 2023, an increase of 2.7 per cent despite global declines in priestly numbers elsewhere.
By year’s end, Africa’s Catholic population rose from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023, a surge of 3.31 per cent, bringing the continent’s share of global Catholics to one-fifth. The number of bishops also rose from 740 to 771, raising Africa’s proportion of the episcopate to 14.2 per cent of the global total.
