The Pontifical Yearbook published from March last year to 22 February 2014 indicated that Africa is witnessing the fastest growth with almost 199 million in 2012 doubling that of Asia by 29 percent.
It said the Catholic presence in Africa is stronger and rose from 13.8 percent in 2005 to 16.2 percent in 2012.
The Yearbook said Europe’s Catholics continue to drop and their number fell from 25.5 percent in 2005 to 23.3 percent in 2012.
It indicated that the number of people being baptized increased with 10.2 percent between 2005 and 2012 rising from 1115 to 1229 million and that Catholic population in the world rose from 6.5 to 7.0 billion.
The book said Asia’s Catholics account for about 11 percent of the population and that 49 percent of the world’s baptized Catholic population is in America.
Vatican authorities said this year’s figures are of particular interest because they refer to the first year of Francis’ pontificate since his election on March 13, 2013.