How common are Catholics?

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How common are Catholics? How many are there really?

They say there are one billion but Im not sure that is the case.

Im not even talking about “dissenters” who have some problems/don’t understand some church teachings but go to mass anyway. I think perhaps a majority (or a sizeable number) just go to mass but don’t really think about Catholocism one way or another and may be practically atheists in their life/actions.

Any ideas?
 
HabemusFrancis said:
How common are Catholics? How many are there really?

They say there are one billion but Im not sure that is the case.

Im not even talking about “dissenters” who have some problems/don’t understand some church teachings but go to mass anyway. I think perhaps a majority (or a sizeable number) just go to mass but don’t really think about Catholocism one way or another and may be practically atheists in their life/actions.

Any ideas?
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1.2 billion according to the Vatican.

bbc.com/news/world-21443313

somewhere between 800 and 900 million Protestants.

More than 2 billion Christians altogether.

World population is a bit over 7 billion.
 
My member number is 1,125,874,251 so I know that there are over a billion.
 
HabemusFrancis said:
How common are Catholics? How many are there really?

They say there are one billion but Im not sure that is the case.

Im not even talking about “dissenters” who have some problems/don’t understand some church teachings but go to mass anyway. I think perhaps a majority (or a sizeable number) just go to mass but don’t really think about Catholocism one way or another and may be practically atheists in their life/actions.

Any ideas?
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If you’re asking how many accept all teachings and live out the faith every day, yes, the number is probably far smaller than a billion. On the other hand, any Catholic who is going to Mass every week is probably far from “practically an atheist (unless a teen perhaps being forced by a parent)”. I think there are many Catholics who are “practically Protestant” though.
 
I am an American, Catholics are a minority in my country, but because we are a large minority, we make up a pretty good chunk of the worldwide Catholic population. I would say there are four categories of Catholics
  1. Practicing, orthodox Catholics. This is (sadly) probably the smallest number
  2. Cafeteria Catholics. These are Catholics that probably go to Mass, but choose which teachings they want to follow and which they don’t, but still consider themselves faithful (think, American politicians)
    3). Dissenters. These people may go to Mass, but have huge issues with things like a male only priesthood, some don’t believe in auricular confession, and these are the folks you see going to “ordinations” of women priests.
  3. Cultural Catholics. These people are Catholics because their parents were Catholic. They may or may not be practicing but will always consider themselves Catholic. They may see it as being linked with their ethnic background, such as French, Lebanese, Irish, Slovene, Czech, etc.
    Of course, some of these groups have overlaps. It’s completely possible to be a cultral Catholic and an orthodox practicing Catholic in the terminology I used. I think you’ll find that, most Catholics, even if they aren’t practicing, are still going to consider themselves Catholic. The total number is a bit hard to find out; we have surveys in the United States (Gallup polls and the like) but there’s always going to be a flaw with those (they don’t ask EVERYONE). Here in the United States, our census asks things like race and ethnicity, but not religion, so, at most, you’re going to get a mix of guessing and survey answers when you get a total number here. God bless!
 
All baptisms are recorded worldwide. Definitely over a billion. Whether these people practice the faith or not is another thing. It doesn’t matter either way, once baptised Catholic you are Catholic forever.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
I am an American, Catholics are a minority in my country, but because we are a large minority, we make up a pretty good chunk of the worldwide Catholic population. I would say there are four categories of Catholics
  1. Practicing, orthodox Catholics. This is (sadly) probably the smallest number
  2. Cafeteria Catholics. These are Catholics that probably go to Mass, but choose which teachings they want to follow and which they don’t, but still consider themselves faithful (think, American politicians)
    3). Dissenters. These people may go to Mass, but have huge issues with things like a male only priesthood, some don’t believe in auricular confession, and these are the folks you see going to “ordinations” of women priests.
  3. Cultural Catholics. These people are Catholics because their parents were Catholic. They may or may not be practicing but will always consider themselves Catholic. They may see it as being linked with their ethnic background, such as French, Lebanese, Irish, Slovene, Czech, etc.
    Of course, some of these groups have overlaps. It’s completely possible to be a cultral Catholic and an orthodox practicing Catholic in the terminology I used. I think you’ll find that, most Catholics, even if they aren’t practicing, are still going to consider themselves Catholic. The total number is a bit hard to find out; we have surveys in the United States (Gallup polls and the like) but there’s always going to be a flaw with those (they don’t ask EVERYONE). Here in the United States, our census asks things like race and ethnicity, but not religion, so, at most, you’re going to get a mix of guessing and survey answers when you get a total number here. God bless!
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I don’t think any of this is unique to the catholic faith tradition. I think you’ll find these groups in any faith tradition. The difference being that some other Christian faith traditions seem to find a way to change some traditional teachings to mirror what the majority of their adherents might believe–cf something such as contraception.

The peace of Christ,
Mark
 
I believe this discussion has been on-going here on CAF. No one is really certain how the numbers are reached. If they are reached by counting every single baptism in the RCC, then one has to take into account people who have never darkened the door of a church since then. Or people who have left the RCC intentionally and have tried to get their records to reflect that reality. Or people who have converted to Judaism or Islam and have tried to get the records to reflect that reality.

I don’t believe that the numbers are indications of who shows up in a parish on a regular basis and practices the faith.

It’s very similar to the LDS church, where Baptisms are the records they keep to show numbers.
 
The Vatican in its Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae counts anyone who has been baptized in a Catholic ceremony as Catholic, even for those who have left the church. You can see the Ask an Apologist thread here.

There was a method the Church provided where someone who didn’t want to be counted in the Church rolls, but after Omnium in mentem a few years ago that was removed.

Charlemagne noted that the Vatican counts 1.2 billion Catholics and 800-900 million Protestants, but it’s important to note that most Protestants don’t use the same methodology in counting its members. Most of them go (as best as possible) to count those people who when asked would consider themselves members of that particular denomination.
 
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