The number of baptised Catholics in the world grew to 1.285 billion an increase of 1% year on year according just released Vatican statistics.
The latest statistical yearbook reports that the countries with the most Catholics account for almost 56% of the world’s Catholic population.
The top 10 Catholic populations are (in order): Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, United States, Italy, France, Colombia, Spain, Congo and Argentina.
The global Catholic population increased by 7.4 per cent, the Vatican said, between the period between 2010 and 2015. Africa continued to be the continent with the largest percentage growth in Catholics, increasing by 19.4% over the same five-year period.
The increase in baptised Catholics in Africa outpaced the growth of the general population.
In Europe, the Americas and Asia, the number of Catholics roughly correlated with the growth or decline of the population of Europe as a whole over the five-year period, according to the Central Office for Church Statistics.
At the end of 2015, the annual said, there were 670,320 professed women religious in the world, 415,656 priests, 54,229 religious brothers, 45,255 permanent deacons and 5,304 bishops.