13-year decline in worldwide priestly vocations accelerates

March 30, 2026

The 13-year decline in the number of major seminarians worldwide accelerated during 2024, the last full year of Pope Francis’s pontificate, according to statistics published in the new editions of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (2024 edition) and Annuario Pontificio (2026 edition).

The number of major seminarians worldwide fell from 106,495 in 2023 to 103,604 in 2024—a decline of 2.72% in a single year—following the previous year’s decline of 1.83%, from 108,481 in 2022 to 106,495 in 2023.

The declines in 2023 and 2024 followed declines of 1.3% in 2022 (from 109,895 at the end of 2021 to 108,481 at the end of 2022) and 1.7% in 2021 (from 111,855 at the end of 2020 to 109,895 at the end of 2021).

The number of major seminarians worldwide surged from 63,882 in 1978, the year of Pope St. John Paul II’s election, to 110,553 in 2000—far surpassing the rate of world population growth—and rose more steadily over the next decade to a peak of 120,616 in 2011.

The decline has been especially pronounced since 2019: the number of seminarians stood at 114,058 at the end of 2019. Thus, the number of major seminarians worldwide fell 14.1% over a 13-year period and fell 9.2% between 2019 and 2024, the last five full years of Pope Francis’s pontificate.

 

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Further information:

• New data of Annuario Pontificio 2026 shows Catholics growing in Africa (Vatican News, 3/28/26)
• 12-year decline in worldwide priestly vocations accelerates (CWN, 3/21/25)