Traditionalist Catholic - Number of Traditionalist Catholics

Number of Traditionalist Catholics

According to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, the Catholic Church's worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2005 was 1,114,966,000. Estimates of the number of traditionalist Catholics vary. Catholic World News reported that "the Vatican" estimated the number of those served by the Fraternity of St Peter, the Society of St Pius X and similar groups at "close to 1 million". A poster on Yahoo GeoCities, put the number of traditionalist Catholics (in good standing with the Holy See or not) "somewhere around the six or seven million mark", and a sedevacantist site put them at "60 to 120 million worldwide". Various sources estimate the adherents of the Society of St Pius X alone at 1 million,

The two most prominent societies of traditionalist priests - the SSPX and the FSSP - claim to have a presence in 31 and 14 countries respectively. A large share of their members in each case are stationed in France. Two other societies, the SSPV and CMRI, are based in the United States and also claim a presence in many countries, especially the CMRI. Traditionalist Catholics in English-speaking countries and Germany are more likely to be sedevacantist than those in France and other Latin countries.

For purposes of comparison with mainstream Catholic organisations, the Knights of Columbus in the United States are stated to have 1.7 million members, the Neocatechumenal Way is reported to have around 1 million members, and Opus Dei is claimed to have 87,000 members.

Another comparison is that Eastern Rite Catholics number 16 million. Approximately 7,650,000 belong to the fourteen Catholic Churches of Byzantine Rite, whether they attend the Divine Liturgy in that liturgical rite or in another, and 8,300,000 belong to other Eastern Catholic Churches of Armenian, Coptic and Syriac traditions.