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Religious statistics of the Catholic Church: the evolution of the number of the clergy

The website Catholic-Hierarchy offers information on the Catholic clergy, updated daily. The Catholic Church also offers an explanation of what it means to be a Catholic cleric (in French).

According to the Annuaire statistique de l’Eglise catholique, in 2016 in France, the clergy comprised about hundred Archbishops, Bishops and Auxiliary Bishops in all, some 20,000 active priests and 2,700 deacons. In that year, around 100 ordinations were celebrated.
There are more than 6,000 French missionaries abroad (priests, religious people and secular missionaries), especially in Africa, Latin America, Asia, etc. Meanwhile, there are about 1,800 foreign priests and more than 4,000 members of religious orders working as missionaries in France.

The evolution of the number of priests and deacons

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 2014 2015 2016
Priest present in France 21 187 20 680 20 277 19 640 - - - - - - -
among which diocesan priests 16 075 15 957 15 341 15 008 14 353 14 112 13 822 - 12 363 11 908 11 606
among which priests members of a religious order 5 112 5 083 4 936 4 632 - - - - - - -
Total number of permanent deacons with a ministry 1 499 1 960 2 169 2 250 2 335 2 420 2 450 - 2 633 2 670 2 694
Permanent deacons ordained 81 101 121 94 95 98 84 - 95 103 76

The evolution of the number of members of religious orders

2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2014 2015
Total number of French religious sisters (leading either an apostolic or a monastic life) 49 871 44 340 40 600 39 347 37 934 35 934 35 542 29 433 26 658 24 971
Total number of religious priests, brothers and monks 10 121 9 409 8 434 8 388 8 099 7 504 7 508 6 566 5 741 5 490

See also the number of ordinations in 2019.

Source:
 The Statistical Yearbook of the Church (2012 statistics), National Service for Vocations.
 The Conference of Major Superiors and Service for Cloistered Religious Sisters 2005.
 Website of the Catholic church.

D 2 May 2019    AAnne-Laure Zwilling

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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