Catholic

The Catholic Church has 1.1 billion adherents worldwide, representing half of the global Christian population.

Brazil has the world’s largest number of Catholics (134 million). There are more Catholics in Brazil alone than in Italy, France and Spain combined. The 10 countries with the largest number of Catholics contain more than half (56%) of the world’s Catholics. 

Most of the countries with the largest Catholic populations have Catholic majorities. But the United States has the world’s fourth-largest Catholic population even though only about one-in-four Americans is Catholic. There are 67 countries in which Catholics make up a majority of the population.

More than 70% of Catholics live either in the Americas (48%) or in Europe (24%). Almost 40% live in Latin America alone. More than a quarter live either in the Asia-Pacific region (12%) or in sub-Saharan Africa (16%).