Catholic Population
How many Catholics are there in Australia?
According to the 2021 Australian Census, the Catholic population was 5,075,910 or 20.0% of the total Australian population.
Between 2016 and 2021, both the number of Catholics and the proportion of Catholics in the population decreased.
In 2016, the Catholic population was 5,291,8 34 or 22.6% of the total Australian population.
In 2011, the Catholic population was 5,439,267 or 25.3% of the total Australian population.
In 2006, the Catholic population was 5,126,884 or 25.8% of the total Australian population.
Mass attendance
How many Catholics go to Mass on Sundays?
In 2021, about 417,300 or 8.2% of all Australian Catholics physically attended Mass on a typical Sunday. The 2021 National Count of Attendance was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic when various health measures affected attendance patterns for most religious groups, including Catholics. As an alternative to attending in person, Mass attendees were able to join various broadcast Masses. On a typical weekend in May 2021, 30,100 Australian households watched the televised Mass for You At Home.
In 2016, about 623,356 people, or 11.8% of all Australian Catholics, attended Mass on a typical Sunday.
We know from the 2016 National Church Life Survey that most people (about 85%) who attend Mass go every Sunday and the percentage of Catholics attending Mass two or three times a month is 8%. Most people at Mass on weekends (around 98%) are Catholic, and most others identify as another Christian denomination.
In 2011, about 12.2% of Catholics attended Mass on a typical Sunday.
Dioceses and Parishes
How many dioceses are there in Australia?
There are 34 dioceses in Australia. (A diocese is a section of the Church entrusted to the leadership of a bishop.) There are twenty-eight dioceses based on territorial divisions, five dioceses of Eastern Catholic Churches and one military diocese, where the bishop’s responsibility is the pastoral care of Catholic members of the Australian Defence Forces and their families.
How many parishes are there?
The 2024-25 Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia lists 1,339 parishes, including 110 belonging to Eastern Catholic Churches.
What are Eastern Catholic Churches?
Almost all of Australia’s 5.1 million Catholics belong to what is called the Latin Rite or the Western Catholic Church, but there are also around 1.5% of Catholics who belong to Eastern Catholic Churches, often called Eastern Rites. The five largest Eastern Catholic Churches in Australia are the Maronite, Melkite, Ukrainian, Chaldean and Syro-Malabar, each of which has been established as a diocese (or eparchy), with a bishop (or eparch) who is a member of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. As well as these five Eastern Catholic Churches, there are also four others that have clergy resident in Australia. These are the Armenian, Syrian, Coptic and Russian Catholic Churches. There are probably Catholics belonging to other Eastern Rites as well, but they do not gather as distinct, organised Churches.
Priests
How many priests are there in Australia?
The number of priests in Australia in 2023 was 2,813, made up of 1,810 diocesan and 1,003 priests belonging to religious orders (Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia 2024-25, p.761). (Diocesan priests belong to a locality called a diocese and are responsible to the bishop of the diocese or archdiocese, while religious order priests belong to groups such as the Jesuits, Franciscans or Salesians, and are responsible to the leaders of their order. There are about 40 orders of priests in Australia.)
How does this number compare with the past?
The number of priests in Australia peaked at 3,895 in 1971, and was above 3,800 from 1968 till the early 1980s. There has been a decline of around 28% since 1971.
What is the age profile of priests?
There is no complete profile on the age of Australian priests available. A 1996 study found that the average age of diocesan priests working in parishes was 56 years. Figures published by the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia’s largest diocese in terms of number of priests, showed that the average age of diocesan priests on appointment (i.e., not including retired priests) had risen from 44 in 1977 to 60 by 2001.
How many men are training to be priests?
In 2023, according to the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia 2024-25 (p.762), there were 199 men training to be priests in Australia’s diocesan seminaries (i.e. not including those training to be religious order priests). In contrast, there were 546 in 1969. By 1991, that figure had dropped to 172, and then rose again in interceding years since, although fluctuates somewhat from year to year.
What is the ratio of Catholics to each priest in Australia, and how does that compare with the rest of the world?
The 2024-2025 Official Catholic Directory shows that there were 1,804 Catholics for every priest in Australia. According to the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church (p.102-109), the number of Catholics per priest by continent was as follows:
Africa: 5,077
North America: 2,173
Central America, Mainland: 7,340
Central America, Antilles: 7,541
South America: 7,548
Asia: 2,116
Europe: 1,812
Oceania (including Australia): 2,503
World: 3,408
Religious Sisters and Brothers
How many religious sisters and brothers are there in Australia?
The 2024-25 Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia records that there are 3,070 religious sisters and 572 religious brothers in Australia. In 2007, there were about 5,700 religious sisters and 1,020 religious brothers in Australia. The sisters belong to orders, or congregations, such as the Josephites (founded by Mary McKillop), the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Charity, the Family Care Sisters, and many others. In all, there are just under 100 congregations of women religious in Australia and five congregations of brothers, including the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the De La Salle Brothers
References
The Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia: 2024-2025 (St Pauls Publications, 2024). The annual directory is available from St Pauls Publications https://secure.stpauls.com.au/strathfield/ or Ph: (02) 9394 3400.
Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2022 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2024).
For more census data: https://ncpr.catholic.org.au/catholic-social-profiles
For more information about Australian Catholic dioceses: Dioceses Information in Australia.