The number of Catholics in South Korea has surpassed 6 million for the first time.
According to "Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2025," published by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea on Tuesday, the number of Catholics in the country stood at 6,006,832 as of the end of last year. The figure rose by 9,178, or 0.2%, from the previous year.
The ratio to the country's total population remained unchanged from the previous year at 11.4%. By gender, male believers numbered 2,595,691, or 43.2%, while female believers totaled 3,411,141, or 56.8%, with women outnumbering men by 13.6 percentage points.
The average number of Sunday Mass attendees was 928,195, or 15.5% of all believers. The number of people baptized last year reached 64,073, up 9.8% from the previous year.
The number of clergy stood at 5,797, an increase of 46 from the previous year. This included two cardinals, 37 bishops, and 5,758 priests, comprising 5,622 Korean and 136 foreign priests.
"Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea" is compiled annually by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea based on a comprehensive survey conducted as of December 31 covering the nation's 16 dioceses, six Catholic university seminaries, men's and women's missionary and religious orders, and devotional and apostolic organizations.
