The world's Catholic population increased by almost 12% in the first nine years of this Millennium.
The most rapid growth was in Africa where the church grew by a third.
The Vatican's Statistical Yearbook of the Church shows the global Catholic presence climbing from 1.045bn in 2000 to 1.166bn in 2008, which represents an increase of 11.5%.
Numbers in Africa grew by 33%, in Asia by 16%, while in the Americas and Oceania they grew by 11%. Europe experienced an increase of just 1%.
There has been a slip in the Catholic share of Europe's population from 27% in 2000 to 24% in 2008.
Globally, the number of priests increased by 1% over the period, with Asia showing a jump of 25% and Africa of 33%.
However, in the Americas the number of priests remained stable, while it fell by 7% in Europe and by 4% in Oceania, which stretches from New Zealand to the Philippine Sea.
