from Felix Richter, Statista.com
by Niall McCarthy
The number of Catholic priests in the United States is drastically declining.
Back in 1970, there were around 8,000 students in U.S. seminaries, a number which plummeted to 1,300 by 2009. In the mid 1970s, the priesthood numbered almost 60,000. In 2013, however, the total number of priests fell to 39,600.
It isn’t all bad news for the Catholic Church, however. Worldwide, the number of priests is actually increasing. In 1975, there were 404,783 Catholic priests spread across the world. By 2013, this had risen to 412,236.
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