Africa is the Catholic Church's region of biggest growth, with rising numbers of faithful, clergy and religious orders, according to Vatican statistics. The church's growth in the Americas has largely stalled, meanwhile, and Europe's share of the world's largest church continues to decline.
The church's statistical yearbook features a survey of worldwide Catholicism in the period 2000-2006. Though the world's proportion of baptized Catholics remained roughly the same over the seven-year period, amounting to 17.3% of the world's 1.1 billion people in 2006, its geographical distribution shifted markedly.
The most notable change was in Africa, whose share of the worldwide church rose from 12.4% to 14%. Even more dramatic was the increase in church personnel there. While the world total of Catholic priests barely increased, and the number of female religious actually fell, the church in Africa reported nearly a quarter more priests and almost one-sixth more nuns after seven years.
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