VATICAN CITY — Islam has "overtaken" Catholicism in a number of adherents, though Christianity as a whole remains the world’s most widely professed faith, the Vatican’s top statistician said. "For the first time in history we are no longer at the summit. The Muslims have overtaken us," said Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, head of the Central Office of Church Statistics.
Muslims accounted for 19.2 percent of the world’s population in 2006, whereas Catholics made up 17.4 percent, Formenti said, making the total number of Catholics 1.13 billion. All Christian denominations together accounted for 33 percent of the world population, the Vatican official noted.
Formenti suggested that the head count of Catholics was more "scientific" than the Muslim figures. The Vatican collects its data through surveys by Catholic dioceses and parishes, he explained. The number of Muslims is based on information provided by Islamic states, which rely primarily on estimates of population growth.
"While Islamic families continue to beget many children, Christians instead tend to have ever fewer," he said.
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