Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/324

 STATISTICS

280

STATISTICS

number of communicants having almost doubled. Further, the totals of the official Cathohc Directory (for 1909: 14,347,027; for 1910: 14,618,761) are by far too low. For, although the proportion of non- communicants is much smaller among CathoUcs than

Number of Communicants, United States

In 1910. In 1S90.

Catholics 12,321,746 6,257,871

Methodists 6,596,168 4,589,284

Baptists 5,774,066 3,717,969

Lutherans 2,243,486 1,231,072

Presbyterians 1,920,765 1,278,362

Episcopalians 938,390 540,509

Reformed 448,190 309,458

Mormons 400,650 166,125

United Brethren 303,319 225,281

Jews 143,000 130,496

Friends 123,718 107,208

Dunkard Brethren 122,847 73,795

Adventists 95,646 60,491

among Protestants, yet, even with Catholics, the number of communicants was, up to 1910, hardly more than two-thirds of the total. Moreover, the statistics furnished by the parochial clergy for Wilt- zius' Directory can, from the nature of the case,

estant" in the wider sense explained above (Chris- tians who are neither Catholics nor connected with the Greek or Oriental schismatical Churches), we have put down the number as 65 millions. The num- ber of Jews in full membei-ship given by Carroll is evidently far too low, nor is it clear what Carroll understands by this term in the case of Jews. We have therefore given preference to the number of "The Jewish Year Book" for 1910 (1,777,000).

In Southern and Central America the determina- tion of religious profession is easier, as the entire population may be regarded as Catholic, making al- lowance for the few Protestants and the uncivilized Indians not included in the census. The same may be said of Cuba, Porto Rico, Haiti, San Domingo, and the French West Indies, while in the British, Danish, and Dutch colonies there are partly official, partly ecclesiastical data. In Mexico, too, a census of religions was taken by the Government in 1901.

Accoriling to the synopsis presented in Table VIII, the entire population of the Earth at present (i. e. the average for the years 1906-08) amounts to about 1561 millions. The various figures show a notable difference when compared with the previous accounts of Krose and Zeller-Juraschek. In the first place, the latest figures are considerably higher, at least as far as the Christian denominations are con-

Table VI. — Afric.\

Egypt

Abyssinia

Tripoli

Algeria and Tunis

Morocco

Liberia

French North and West Africa.

Other French Possessions

Spanish Possei»sions {•)

Portuguese Possessions (3)

Belgian Congo

German Pos,ses3ions

British North and West Africa. .

British South Africa. .

Other British Possessions

Italian Possessions

(1)100,257

3,000

6,100

663,000

10,000

53,898

365,000

434,000

<) 588,000

34,475

55,004

21,829

90.587

267,689

17,000

?

1,000

22,000

7,000

344,000

4,000 26,000 47,223 133,000 1,911,000 101,991

38,635 200,000

10.000 125.000 150,000

10,269,445

300,000

1,000,000

5,900,000

7,000,000

500,000

3,000.000

300,000

280.000

1,500,000

7

1,000,000

7,000,000

.50,000

5,000.000

200.000

Fetish-wor- shippers and other Heathens.

1,000,000 10,000.000 2,000,000

? 5,000,000 19,000,000 13,000,000 9,000,000 6.700.000 5,000.000 300,000

Africa 2,689,839 2,634,660 5,823,989 573,635 43,299,445 71,000,000

(1) Inclusive of United Oriental Catholics, who were put down separately in the official census of 1907.

(2) Inclusive of Canary Islands. (*) Inclusive of Madeira.

(*) With regard to the Catholics of Angola the data vary considerably; we have taken the lowest estimate, 250,000.

comprise only those Catholics who have for some time resided in a parish and are known to the clergj-; such records, therefore, fall far short of the reality, on account of the great Catholic immigration and the great fluctuation in the population. Hence the present writer believes that, of the 53^ millions whose denomination is marked in our tables as unknown, the majority are Catholics. In those tables, however, Wiltzius' figures for 1909 have been used in default of any accurate data for another estimate.

The total number of Protestant communicants in the United St.ates, according to Carroll, is 21,663,248. .■\s, on the avor.ago, there is one communicant to everv 2-6 inhal)itants, this would mean at most .56 millions of Protestants, and it is quite clear from Carroll's statistics that there are millions in the United States unconnected with any denomination, a. fact which ought to be taken into consideration in calculating the total number of adherents from the number of communicants. Taking, however, the term "Prot-

cerned. The reason of this is that more than a decade has passed since the last calculations. Considering the high birth-rate of the Christian nations, an increase of 10 to 15 per cent is not improbable. Besides, the recent and more accurate census in Southern and Cen- tral America brought in far higher figures than the older and rougher estimates. As these territories are almost exclusively Catholic, it is clear that the in- crease of Catholics apparently surpasses that of the Protestants. On the other hand, the cohimn of Fetish-worshippers and other pagans of lower civili- zation shows a ver>- considerable decrease, which is ex-plained by the recent estimate of the population of Central .\frica. While in 1898 Juraschek supposed thr i)ojiulationof .\frica to be 178 millions, in 1908 he reikoncd the poptilation !vs 129 millions. Tims in these regions religious statistics are subject to great fluctuations. The total number of Christians amount to 618 millions, or 39t) per cent, of the entire popula- tion of the earth. Of the Christians, not quite one- half — 292 ?4 millions, or 47-4 per cent — belong to the