Vatican: World’s Muslims Now Outnumber Catholics

VATICAN CITY (AP) – A Vatican official says that for the first time in history, there are more Muslims than Roman Catholics in the world.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti told the Vatican newspaper that as of 2006, Muslims accounted for 19.2 percent of the world population while Catholics were at 17.4 percent. But when considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Formenti said Christians make up 33 percent of the world population.

Formenti, who compiles the Vatican’s yearbook, notes that while Muslim families “continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer.”

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-03-30-08 1527EDT