The number of Catholics worldwide rose by approximately 13.7 million, reaching a total of 1.389 billion, by 2022, the most recent figures available, according to the latest statistics released by the Agenzia Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Growth was reported across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, while Europe saw a decline of nearly half a million.
Europe was the only continent to see a decline in the number of Catholics in 2022, with a drop of 474,000. In contrast, the Catholic population continued to grow elsewhere, most notably in Africa, which added over 7.2 million, and in the Americas, which gained nearly 5.9 million.
Smaller increases were also seen in Asia (+889,000) and Oceania (+123,000). Globally, the percentage of Catholics in the population increased slightly by 0.03%, bringing the total to 17.7%. Each continent saw only modest shifts overall.
In 2022, Catholics occupied 19.7% of Africa’s population (+0.32%), 64.1% in the Americas (+0.02%), 3.3% in Asia (−0.02%), 39.5% in Europe (−0.08%), and 26.0% in Oceania (+0.06%).
But what does the population of Catholics look like in the nine-county Bay Area region?
Public Religion Research Institute, an American nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization, provided a comprehensive report by analyzing data from 417,000 Americans across all 50 states (2014–2023).
PRRI combined U.S. Census and MIT Election Lab data from 3,142 counties to estimate local religious demographics. Among Bay Area counties, Napa has the highest share of Catholic residents, followed by Alameda, while Solano and San Francisco have the lowest.