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Démographie religieuse de l’Église catholique : évolution du nombre de clercs et religieux

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 mai 2019 AAnne-Laure Zwilling