The Catholic Church in Brazil: some figures
According to the figures given by the Central Statistics Bureau of the Church in December 2005, Brazil numbers 184,180,000 inhabitants. There are 155,628,000 Catholics representing 84,5% of the population.
Today there are 427 bishops in Brazil. With 9,504 parishes, the country numbers 18,087 priests, of whom 10,789 are diocesan priests and 7,298 belong to religious congregations. 13,308 seminarians are preparing for the priesthood. There are besides 2,676 religious brothers, 33,765 religious sisters, 1,759 permanent deacons, 2,015 lay members of secular institutes, 720,704 lay missionaries and 492,370 catechists.
In the domain of education, there are 4,450 Catholic kindergartens or primary schools containing 1,698,748 pupils; 1,390 Catholic junior schools and high schools with a total of 278,894 students; and 233 colleges and universities welcoming 494,706 students.
As for charities and social institutions, the Catholic Church numbers 366 hospitals, 1,013 clinics, 15 leper hospitals, 764 retirement homes as well as 1,942 orphanages, 2,159 centers for the protection of life, and 2,830 centers of social education or re-education.
As for the archdiocese of São Paulo, it numbers over 5 millions Catholics, 286 parishes, 459 churches, 328 diocesan priests, 613 religious priests, over 1,000 religious brothers and 1,800 sisters, 75 seminarians and 30 permanent deacons. In 2006, 41,087 baptisms were registered.
