Vatican City, Mar 9, 2016 / 12:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The number of Catholics has increased at a faster rate than the rest of the population, newly released statistics by the Vatican reveal.

Over the course of nine years, the number of Catholics worldwide has increased by 17.8 percent, compared to the global population, which increased by 17.3 percent.

From 2005-2014, the number of Catholics grew from 1.12 billion to 1.27 billion.