The number of priests in the world dropped by 136 during 2015, the Vatican has reported.
The increased number of priests in African dioceses and religious orders could not make up for the sizeable fall in Europe, which lost 2,502 priests in a year.
Over five years from 2010 to 2015 – a statistically more relevant period – the number of diocesan priests globally rose, while the number of priests belonging to religious orders declined.
The 2017 Annuario Pontificio, or Vatican yearbook, and a new edition of the Vatican Statistical Yearbook, reported that the number of baptised Catholics grew one per cent in a year to reach 1.285 billion at the end of 2015. The countries with the most Catholics are, in descending order, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, United States, Italy, France, Colombia, Spain, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Argentina.
