Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2013

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (President: Most Rev. Peter Kang U-il) published Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2013 on April 10, 2014.

According to the Statistics as of December 31, 2013, the number of Catholics in Korea was 5,442,996, an increase of 1.5% (81,627) over the last year. This accounts for 10.4% of the total population. The total number of Catholics in Korea has slightly and consistently increased since 2003. By gender, the number of the male faithful was 2,250,015 and the number of the female faithful was 3,192,981, 41.3% and 58.7% respectively of all Catholics in Korea.

Of the 15 dioceses and the Military Ordinariate in Korea, the Archdiocese of Seoul was the most populous with 27.1% of the total Catholics in Korea, followed by the Diocese of Suwon (15.2%), the Archdiocese of Daegu (8.8%), and the Diocese of Incheon (8.7%). The combined number of the faithful in these metropolitan areas (Seoul, Incheon, Uijeongbu and Suwon) accounted for 56.1% of all the Catholics in Korea. In terms of the percentage of the Catholic population compared to the overall population, the Archdiocese of Seoul represented 14.5%, followed by the Diocese of Cheju 11.9%, the Diocese of Cheongju 11.2%, the Dioceses of Suwon and Incheon 10.7% respectively, and the Archdiocese of Daegu 10.5%.

According to the Statistics, the number of newly baptized in 2013 was 118,830, a decrease of 10% from the previous year. By gender, newly baptized men numbered 63,285 and women 55,545. The number of infants baptized amounted to 25,589.

The Statistics also indicates that the number of clergy in Korea in 2013 amounted to 4,901, with 36 bishops, including one Cardinal. There were 4,695 Korean priests and 170 foreign priests. Among the priests, 3,995 were diocesan priests, 697 were religious priests and 173 were missionary priests. 117 priests were newly ordained in 2013, an increase of 2.6% over the previous year.

The number of parishes in 2013 was 1,668, a slight increase of 4 over the previous year, while the number of mission stations was 791, a decrease of 5 from the previous years.

With regard to men and women religious, there were 1,564 men religious, including novices, religious in temporary and perpetual vows as well as foreign religious, while there were 10,173 women religious.