CBCK News
2011-06-10 17:05
2011-07-13 17:06
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Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2010 Published

Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2010 Published


 


     The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea (President: Most Rev. Peter Kang U-il) published Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2010 on May 19, 2011.


     The Statistics, as of December 31, 2010, showed that the number of Catholics in Korea amounted to 5,202,589 or 10.1% of the total population. This rate, over 10% of the total population, has been maintained since 2009. The increase in number over the decade was 980,000 or 23%.


     The increase in the rate of Catholics in Korea this year was 1.7%. Since 2001, the rate has never gone below 2% except in 2003, when it was 1.9%. A stagnant phenomenon can be found in the number of the newly baptized. The total number of the newly baptized in 2010 was 140,644, a decrease of 16,303 from the previous year.


     Of the 16 dioceses in Korea, the Archdiocese of Seoul was the most populous with 1,417,695 faithful or 27.2% of the total Catholics in Korea, followed by the Diocese of Suwon (767,398 or 14.7%) and the Archdiocese of Daegu (458,128 or 8.8%). The combined number of the faithful in Seoul, Suwon, Incheon and Uijeongbu accounted for 55.4%. This indicates that most of the faithful reside in metropolitan areas.


     By gender, the number of male faithful was 2,164,596 and the number of female faithful was 3,049,995, 41.5% and 58.5% respectively of the total Catholic population of Korea. These rates did not show that big a difference compared to the previous year.


     By age group, those between 50 and 54, amounted to 529,183 or 10.2% of the faithful in Korea, the greatest number. Reflecting the aging society, the group over 60 numbered 999,461.


According to the statistics the number of clergy in Korea in 2010 was 4,522 with 32 bishops and 1 Cardinal.