Interesting Catholic Statistics (priests, minority, church, suicide, divorce)

[johnnys4life]

Found these fascinating statistics at: http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_romcath.html


Some Catholic Demographics
The purpose of this page is not to be a clearinghouse for Catholic demographic data. But as we

come across some interesting statistics, we may add them here.
Catholic countries have lower suicide rates than Protestant ones and "even within Protestant

countries those areas with Catholic populations [have] lower rates." It is worth noting that "the

reduced suicide rate of Catholics relative to Protestants is independent of their minority

status."
[Sources: Study by Emile Durkheim, cited in Robert Alun Jones. Emile Durkheim: An Introduction to

Four Major Works. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 1986. Pg. 82-114.; John

Hood-Williams (Department of Social Science, University of Greenwich, London, UK). "Studying

Suicide" in Health & Place (Vol. 2. No. 3; 1996), pg. 167-177.]

A national survey conducted by the Barna Research Group (Ventura, California), determined that in

the U.S., Catholics and Lutherans have the lowest divorce rate among major Christian

denominations. (Baptists had the highest divorce rate).
[Sources: Barna report online; Greg Garrison. "Survey: Baptists lead in divorces" in The

Birmingham News, 30 Dec. 1999.]

"Catholic countries consume significantly more alcohol than Protestant (or neither religion

dominant) countries."
[Source: Stanton Peele (Fellow, The Lindesmith Center, New York). "Utilizing Culture and Behaviour

in Epidemiological Models of Alcohol Consumption and Consequences for Western Nations" in Alcohol

& Alcoholism (vol. 32; 1997), pg. 51-64.]

More Catholic science fiction and fantasy writers belong to the Catholic Church than to any other

religious body. Notable among these are G.K. Chesterton, Andrew Greeley, J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A.

Lafferty, Anthony Boucher, Clifford Simak, Walter M. Miller, Jr. and Gene Wolfe. On a per capita

basis, there are more practicing Catholics than practicing Protestants among mainstream sf/f

writers. However, there are some specific religious bodies other than the Catholic Church which

are better represented on a per capita basis. In the introduction to Sacred Visions, Andrew

Greeley (the famed priest-sociologist-novelist) suggests Catholicism fits better with science

fiction than Protestantism. The Jesuit priest/scientist is one of the most common types of

religous characters in science fiction literature.
[Source: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Various Faiths.]

[jimbob]

Wow, thanks for the info. pretty amazing.

[johnnys4life]

Your very welcome. I find facts endlessly fascinating. I also just found this from:

http://bogners.typepad.com/church/20..._statisti.html
Church Statistics

The US has the third-largest Catholic population among all countries. The largest is Brazil with about 144 million Catholics (86% of their population), followed by Mexico with about 90 million (92% of their population). The US has 63 million, which is roughly 23% of the total population. Italy has the highest number of parishes & priests (25,6845 and 54,920). The US has 19,356 parishes and 48,288 priests.

In 1965 the US had 58,632 priests and 45 million Catholics. In 2003 the number of priests dropped to 43,634. The number of parishes without a priest went from 549 in 1965 to 3,040 in 2003.

In 2001 there were 20,405 Catholics per seminarian in the US. In India, there were 3,100 per seminarian while in France it was 58,555 per seminarian. The world-wide average is 18,724.

In 1900 Catholics made up 48% of all Christians, while in 2000 that increased to 53%. From 1950 to 2000 the number of Catholics in Africa increased by 313% while in Europe it increased 58%.

74% of US Catholics said they would donate more if they felt more secure about their personal finances. 22% said they reduced their donations due to the reports of misconduct by priests. 27% think they will donate more in the year ahead.