The following are some highlights from the new edition of the Statistical Yearbook of the Church (covering 2000-2008)...
* The number of Catholics worldwide has increased 11.54% to 1,166 million in 2008, with a large increase in Africa (33%) and Asia (15.61%)
* Catholics as a percentage of the total population in Europe declined from 26.8% in 2000 to 24.31% in 2008, "remained stable" in America and Oceania, and "increased slightly" in Asia
* The total number of priests "increased slightly" (less than 1%), with the number of diocesan priests increasing by 3.1% and the number of regular priests declining by over 3%
* The number of non-ordained religious declined from 55,057 in 2000 to 54,641 in 2008
* The number of female religious declined from 800,000 in 2000 to 740,000 in 2008
Source: Vatican Information Service
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