Here Comes Everybody II

Written by Sherry

Friday, 19 October 2007 09:12

Per John Allen this morning in a article that is primarily about the distribution of Cardinals among the Catholic populations of the world but has some fascinating stats about the transformation of Catholicism during the course of the 20th century. In 1900, there were 266 million Catholics in the world, 200 million of whom lived in Europe and North America. (75%) Just a century later, there were 1.1 billion Catholics, only 380 million of whom were in Europe and North America with 720 million in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The global South accounted for 25 percent of the Catholic population a century ago; today it's 67 percent and climbing. Drawing on the most recent edition of the Annuario, the Vatican's official yearbook, the global Catholic population breaks down as follows: Latin America, 43 percent; Europe, 22 percent; Africa, 14 percent; Asia, 11 percent; North America, 8 percent; and Oceania, 2 percent. Here's a projection of what the top ten Catholic countries on earth will be in 2050, as measured by population: Brazil: 215 million Mexico: 132 million Philippines: 105 million United States: 99 million (we are the largest Christian nation in the world but only the 4th largest Catholic country) Democratic Republic of Congo: 97 million Uganda: 56 million France: 49 million Italy: 49 million Nigeria: 47 million Argentina: 46.1 million