March 20 (UPI) -- The world's Catholic population has grown, but the number of priests has fallen, according to a new report that looks at the latest available data.
The Vatican [announced the figures Thursday](https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2025-03/pontifical-yearbook-2025-priests-religious-statistics.html), noting that the global Catholic populace increased between 2022 and 2023 by 1.15%, from around 1.39 billion to 1.406 billion.
Conversely, by the end of 2023, there were 406,996 priests, a 0.2% decrease of 734 compared to 2022.
Africa, home to 20% of the Catholics on Earth, is where the largest increase was measured, as their number increased to 281 million in 2023 from from 272 million in 2022.
The decrease in the number of priests occurred mainly in Europe, the Oceania region and what the Vatican called "America," which combined for a -3.3% drop. Africa has seen a gain of close to 3.3% in diocesan priests and 1.4% in religious priests.
The count of overall bishops [in the Catholic Church](https://thecatholicherald.com/global-catholic-population-passes-1-4-billion/) has grown over the last two years by 1.4%, to 5,430 in 2023 from 5,353 in 2022, but the biggest increase was in permanent deacons, which went up by 2.6% to 51,433 from 50,150.
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