Priest shortage in the Catholic Church

In the years since World War II there has been a substantial reduction in the number of priests per capita in the Catholic Church, a phenomenon considered by many to constitute a "shortage" in the number of priests. From 1980 to 2012, the ratio of Catholics per priest increased globally, with the number of Catholics per priest going from 1,895 to 3,126.^[1]

In 2014, there were 49,153 parishes in the world that had no resident priest pastor.^[2] Between 1970 and 2023, the number of priests declined from 419,728 to 407,872 despite a large increase in the number of Catholics.^[3]^[4]^[2]^[5]

^ Blair, Leonardo (5 June 2015). "Catholic Church Importing Priests From Africa and Asia for US and European Churches as It Runs Short of Natives". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
^ ^a ^b "Frequently Requested Church Statistics". cara.georgetown.edu. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
^ http://www.fides.org/en/attachments/view/file/CATHOLIC_CHURCH_STATISTICS_2023.docx
^ https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/03/29/vatican-statistics-catholics-growth-240341
^ "Number of priests declined for first time in decade, Vatican says". Crux. Mar 6, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

[1] Blair, Leonardo (5 June 2015). "Catholic Church Importing Priests From Africa and Asia for US and European Churches as It Runs Short of Natives". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

[CARA-2] "Frequently Requested Church Statistics". cara.georgetown.edu. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2021.

[3] ttp://www.fides.org/en/attachments/view/file/CATHOLIC_CHURCH_STATISTICS_2023.docx

[4] ttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/03/29/vatican-statistics-catholics-growth-240341

[5] "Number of priests declined for first time in decade, Vatican says". Crux. Mar 6, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2021-01-02.

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