Vatican statistics said Europe was the only region in the world to witness a decline in the number of Catholics between 1990 and 2010. During this period their global tally increased by nearly 30 per cent to 1.2 billion adherents.

Huge jump in Catholic population in Africa, decline in Europe

When weekly Mass attendance is at an all-time low in Western Europe and the population of Catholics declined in the continent, in Africa their number grew from 55 million to 146 million between 1978 and 2007. Now the number has reached 176 million. Thus there was more than three times jump witnessed in 35 years.

Though the population increased in the natural process yet it is also true that the Church gained a large number of converts at the expense of Muslims and indigenous beliefs such as voodooism or animism, in which spirits are believed to inhabit objects in nature.

However, Latin America has the largest concentration of Catholics. Forty-two per cent of world’s Catholics live there. Brazil has maximum number of Catholic population in the globe.

Yet Catholics in Latin America are facing stiff challenge from Protestants, especially from the United States. But it is in Africa too that Protestants are gaining converts. Thus in this continent the overall Christian population is increasing.




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