section_path: Organization/Membership
section_name: Membership
paragraph_text: Membership
  
  As of 2020, Catholicism is the second-largest religious body in the world after Sunni Islam. According to World Christian Database, there are 1.278 billion Catholics globally, as of 2024. According to Annuario Pontificio, church membership, defined as baptized Catholics, was 1.378 billion at the end of 2021, which is 17.67% of the world population. Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, followed by Mexico, the Philippines, and the United States. Catholics represent about half of all Christians.
  
  Geographic distribution of Catholics worldwide continues to shift, with 19.3% in Africa, 48.0% in the Americas, 11.0% in Asia, 20.9% in Europe, and 0.8% in Oceania.
  
  Catholic ministers include ordained clergy, lay ecclesial ministers, missionaries, and catechists. Also as of the end of 2021, there were 462,388 ordained clergy, including 5,353 bishops, 407,730 priests (diocesan and religious), and 50,150 deacons (permanent). Non-ordained ministers included 3,157,568 catechists, 367,679 lay missionaries, and 39,951 lay ecclesial ministers.
  
  Catholics who have committed to religious or consecrated life instead of marriage or single celibacy, as a state of life or relational vocation, include 49,414 male religious and 599,228 women religious. These are not ordained, nor generally considered ministers unless also engaged in one of the lay minister categories above.