Catholic Church by country

In addition to Eastern Catholic Churches, the Catholic Church oversees the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the largest Charismatic movement of a single institution in 2020, with over 100 million members, primarily in the Global South. The Catholic Church is also described as an "amalgam of parts" (i.e., thousands of individual dioceses and religious orders) globally dispersed, but in communion with Rome.

The church is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world, while the diplomatic status of the Holy See facilitates access to its vast international network of charities. These entities include 5,000 hospitals, 10,000 orphanages, 95,000 elementary schools and 47,000 secondary schools.

Methodology

Most of the figures are taken from the CIA's World Factbook or Pew Research Center surveys. In Latin American countries, Latinobarómetro is often cited. In Germany and other German-speaking regions of Europe, there are official membership statistics due to the fact that the government collects a church tax based on these membership lists. For this reason, statistics are not solely grounded on surveys based on self-identification. A baptismal certificate or other religious document is likewise secondary to church statistics. This method may explain the discrepancy between Pew's figures on Germany and the church figures.

According to The World Factbook and Pew, the five countries with the largest number of Catholics are, in decreasing order:

• Brazil
• Mexico
• Philippines
• United States
• Democratic Republic of the Congo

The country with the largest percentage of its population having membership in the church is Vatican City at 100%, followed by Timor-Leste at 97%.

According to the World Christian Database, there are 1.279 billion Catholics worldwide as of 2026, which constitute 47.8% of 2.674 billion Christians. According to the Census of the 2023 Annuario Pontificio ('Pontifical Yearbook'), the number of baptized Catholics in the world was about 1.376 billion at the end of 2021. The research initiative Catholics & Cultures compiles data on Catholic demographics, including from the Annuario Pontificio, by country.