The world Catholic population went from 1,260 million people in 2012 to 1,402 million in 2023. Although there was a numerical increase, in proportion to the global population, the percentage of Catholics did not grow, but has decreased slightly: it went from 17.85% to 17.43%according to official figures of the Catholic Church. Although there are several sources that measure the population of different religions (see graphs), they all coincide in the trend.
The evolution of the Catholic population has not been the same on all continents. In the global south, specifically in Africa and Asia, the Catholic religion has advanced notoriously. In Africa, Catholics went from representing 17.6% of the continent in 2012 to 19% in 2023. For their part, Asia went from 3% to 3.2% in the same period of time.
It is quite different is the panorama in the West.
In America, although the absolute number of Catholics in increased from 636 million in 2012 to 672 million in 2023, its proportion with respect to the total population of the continent decreased from approximately 67.4% to 64.8%. This indicates a slower growth compared to the general population growth of the continent.
In Europe, Catholics represented 64.7% of the continent in 2012. In 2023, the figure fell to 63.3%.
“The world overview evidently shows that Catholicism is growing in the global south, while in Europe and Latin America Catholicism is in decline,” explains Juan Fonseca, historian of the religions and professor at the University of the Pacific.
According to the specialist, Europe in particular is experiencing a “process of de -Christianization” since the twentieth century, mainly due to “a cultural change in people’s attitudes towards the traditional religious.”
“Processes such as the empowerment of women, the sexual revolution of the 60 and 70, the development of scientific thinking questioned certain convictions that Europeans had traditionally in relation to faith, and many churches did not know how to respond properly to that challenge at the time”, He says.
As for marked growth in Africa, Fonseca considers that, among other relevant factors, the Catholic religion has managed to offer responses in crisis contexts. “Religion is this dimension in which the human being finds answers for his deepest problems, and I believe that Christianity has managed to offer those responses to people in Africa and Asia in a context of a lot of crisis,” he says.
In Peru and Latin America
According to the report Latinobarometer54% of Latin Americans identified as a Catholic in 2024. In 1995, the figure reached 80%.
In Peru, the last time the Catholic population was formally measured was in 2017, during the last population census in charge of the Here. At that time, every 8 out of 10 Peruvians identified themselves as Catholics. However, according to more current measurements of the Latinobarometerin 2024 it would be 5 out of 10.
“Although Catholicism remains the majority religion, it is also in decline, and it is rather evangelical religions and non -belief that are growing. They are still minorities, but for the trend, from here a few decades probably the Latin American religious landscape changes”, Says Fonseca.
In fact, in certain Central American countries, such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, the evangelicals already exceed 35%.
How is this reconfiguration explained in the religious panorama of Latin America? According to Fonseca, the growth of evangelical churches has been a determining factor. These, he points out, achieved their message in the last decades more effectively in rural and poverty populations.
“Since the 60s, evangelical growth has first due to the churches itself to better connect their message to the cultural and social languages of the poorest people in Latin America. There are several studies that show that rural or poverty areas that were generated in Latin American cities from the internal migration of the countryside to the city were the main space where evangelicals grew. The Catholic message began to be very complex, while the evangelicals offered very simple solutions to simple people of the people”, He explains.
The historian of religions adds that evangelicals “also have a better capacity to use technology, churches are more capable of building direct relationships with believers and have a strong sense of proselytism.”
Precisely this “strong sense of proselytism” generated advantage over the Catholic Church, which “for centuries was the only one and was not accustomed to competition,” he says.
Without religion
At the global level, not only evangelical religions have been increasing, but also the number of people who have no religious affiliation. According to a report of Pew Research Center From 2025, which analyzes the changes of religion that people experience, the category that has acquired the most new members is “religiously not affiliated.”
In Peru, for example, for each person who ceased not to be religious to become a religion, 8.5 became non -religious. At the Latin American level, most of the people who identified themselves as non -affiliated with any religion are under 35 years.
According to Fonseca, the lack of religious affiliation occurs mainly in urban, younger and higher educational sectors. “The sectors closest to modernity spaces have a tendency to distrust religious speeches,” he says.
Another factor that would influence the increase in non -affiliates is the moral rigidity perceived by the younger generations, as well as the discredit of the churches, particularly that of the Catholic following the various accusations of sexual abuse to minors.
“All pederasty scandals have affected the moral prestige of the church, the younger generations have stopped seeing it as a space for provision, but as a dangerous one for values”, He adds.
Veronique Claire Gauthier, doctor of Catholic theology and teacher of the PUCP, emphasizes this last aspect:
“Perhaps we do not realize here in Peru, but in Chile, for example, half of the people who said Catholics have ceased to be for the issue of the abuses of the priests and the management of the Vatican. This has been a problem”, He says.
Francisco’s successor challenges in the modern world
In Fonseca’s opinion, the Catholic Church faces the challenge of adapting to changes in the contemporary western world, which implies “continuing to open the Church without splitting it.”
“While in the Global South Catholicism is more conservative, in Europe and the West Catholics are pressing so that the Church changes in areas such as sexuality or participation of women, because societies have changed”, indica.
As is known, Pope’s management Francisco In the Vatican it was marked by discussing the opening of the Catholic Church in aspects such as the acceptance of LGBT people and the participation of women.
“I think Francisco will go down in history as the Pope who dared to open gaps in spaces where the Church, for centuries, did not want to open any. He began a process of reform and openness to the modern world. The challenge of the next Pope will be to see how to continue with it without breaking the church. And it is a challenge because, if the few steps that Francisco took – which does not imply change in the dogma or in the structure of the church, but in the pastoral style – generated so much discomfort in the most conservative sectors, imagine if the next Pope dares to touch more structural aspects of the Church”, Reflects Fonseca.
Gauthier, who coincides with the importance of reassessing the role of women in the church, adds a fundamental challenge that the next Pope will face is the reconstruction of the credibility of the Church, “which has been very diminished by the issue of abuses (sexual).”
The theologian adds that the same as important is to evaluate how the image of the Christian god is presented today. “I think there is a problem of how God is presented. Many images of God do not correspond, one cannot believe in an old man, a bearded sitting in a cloud. There is a difficulty in the transmission of faith. We must rethink how we are presenting God.”
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