Irish priest numbers in sharp decline

New figures on clerical numbers in Ireland show that a quarter of all priests currently serving in the Irish Church are expected to retire over the next 15 years. The research, carried out by the Association of Catholic Priests, revealed that 547 priests of the 2,100 working priests in the Irish Church currently are aged between 61 and 75 and nearly 300 or 15 per cent of working priests are aged 75 or over. The survey also revealed that across all 26 Irish dioceses, 52 priests or fewer than 2.5 per cent of working priests are younger than 40 and there are just 47 seminarians in Maynooth.

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WelCom December 2022

New figures on clerical numbers in Ireland show that a quarter of all priests currently serving in the Irish Church are expected to retire over the next 15 years. The research, carried out by the Association of Catholic Priests, revealed that 547 priests of the 2,100 working priests in the Irish Church currently are aged between 61 and 75 and nearly 300 or 15 per cent of working priests are aged 75 or over. The survey also revealed that across all 26 Irish dioceses, 52 priests or fewer than 2.5 per cent of working priests are younger than 40 and there are just 47 seminarians in Maynooth.