Priest numbers increasing says Vatican

VATICAN officials sought to correct the “false illusion” about the dwindling number of priests worldwide, saying their numbers had increased significantly in some places and that fewer seminarians were abandoning their vocations these days.

Statistics from the Congregation for the Clergy presented at a news conference showed that overall, the number of Roman Catholic priests in 2001 stood at 405,067.

The number of Catholic faithful has nearly doubled in that timeframe there are more than a billion Catholics worldwide meaning the ratio of Catholics to priests has significantly dwindled.