Frequently Requested Catholic Church Statistics

CARA gets many inquiries from Church agencies and the media about the numbers for vocations, seminary enrollments, priests and vowed religious, parishes, Mass attendance, schools and the Catholic population. Below are comparative statistics from 1965. Generally, the data reflect the situation at the beginning of the calendar year listed. The sources for this information include The Official Catholic Directory, the Vatican's Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (ASE), and other CARA research and databases. All data are cross checked as much as possible. For the U.S, the numbers reported here include only figures for those 195 dioceses or eparchies who belong to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all U.S. military personnel stationed overseas.

For more information about CARA research and statistics, including our national and parish surveys, demographic studies, trend analyses and projections, and focus groups visit CARA Services.  For more information about CARA's beginings read the following Review of Religious Research article from 1967 by Francis X. Gannon entitled, "Bridging the Research Gap: CARA, Response to Vatican II."