India leads world in Catholic women religious

India led the world in the number of vocations among women religious in the Catholic Church.

India saw an increase of 9,398 women religious from 2002 to 2007, according to a report published by the Catholic Culture.

Among other countries in Asia, Vietnam increased by 2,545 and both South Korea and the Philippines increased by about 500.

Similar trend was also seen in Africa where Tanzania and the Congo was up by around 1,500. Additionally, Nigeria, Madagascar, Kenya and Angola were each up by 500 to 800.

"Generally speaking, since 2000, the number of female religious is up in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean," the report noted.

Now to the countries that noticed a decline in female religious life, United States came second only to Italy.

Further, posting losses of around 6,000 were Germany and France, with losses of about 4,000 incurred by Canada and Spain.

Two to three thousand female religious were lost per nation in Belgium, the Netherlands and Brazil. Around a thousand were lost in each of Argentina, Columbia and Ireland.

"All told, over the past 45 years, America has lost 65% of its sisters. Since the year 2000, female religious are down generally in Europe; North, Central and South America; and Oceania," said the report by Dr. Jeff Mirus, President of Catholic Culture.

According to the report, from 2002 to 2007, the number of sisters declined worldwide by 4.6%.

Currently, there are about 750,000 women religious serving around the world.