Approximately 6 Million Catholic Believers in Korea... Slight Increase from Previous Year

by Seo Miteum

Published 25 Apr.2023 15:50(KST)

The number of Catholic believers in South Korea was estimated to be about 6 million as of last year. This figure shows a slight increase compared to the previous year.

According to the "Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2022" released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea, as of December 31, 2022, the number of believers across 16 dioceses nationwide was counted at 5,949,862. The number of believers increased by 0.2% (11,817 people) compared to the previous year.

Photo by Korean Catholic Bishops' Conference

Among them, the average number of participants attending Sunday Mass was 699,681, accounting for 11.8% of the total number of believers. Compared to 1,080,687 (18.3% of all believers) in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak, this corresponds to 64.7%.

In the case of Sunday school, the attendance rates were 49.3% for elementary level, 28.6% for middle school level, and 15.9% for high school level, showing a clear decline as the grade level increased. Compared to the previous year, the rates changed by -0.9% for elementary, 1.8% for middle, and -7.9% for high school levels. Compared to 2019 before COVID-19, the levels were at 63.2% for elementary, 75.9% for middle, and 81.6% for high school, confirming that the recovery rate for the elementary level was the slowest.