American Catholic Statistics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 20, 15 May 1902, Page 6

American Catholic Statistics.

The Offl ml Directory for 1902 of the Catholic Church in the United States gives the total Catholic population as 10 976 753 Of course this is but an approximation. Most dioceses qualify "their totals with -about' or 'estimated,' and a few reckon by families The reckoning is cautious, always rather under than over the probabilities. F The distribution of the Catholic population is an interesting study at which we can but glance. The great Archdiocese of New ?°i Sl° Ut u2OOu 200 ' 0001 Brooklyn returns 500,000 ; and Newark, N J 290,000 Here in a -comparatively small space, is massed nearly one-fifth of the total estimated Catholic population of the •tJ^nnnn' ffre , ate ! t Catholic centre is the Archdiocese of Chicago, with 800,000. and a total of 245.000 in its three suffragan Sees of Alton, Bell.-ville, and Peoria, making over a million of Catholics in the single State of Illinois. c . ' r^ e Archdiocese of Boston comfs next, with an estimated fi._»o 000 ; and the aggregate population of its six suffragan See. ■;,'i glra New Ea S ] ™* » total Catholic population of The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has about 100,000 • but the greit Diuc<se of Pittsbuig in the same State has a quarter of a million, even with the new See of Altoona, with ita 440 000 cut off. ' The old and long-settled archdioceses of Baltimore, St. Louis and New Orleans, show slighter change in their figures, as they no longer attract much immigration and grow from natural increase. The figures of Catholic school attendance in comparison to the total population, of which * c take some specimens, are significant Baltimore s are 28,349 to 245,000 ; Bostons, 44,700 to GSO 000 • Chi-' cago's, 80,000 to 80O,O0O; Cincinnati's, 29,277 to 200 000 •' Dubuque's, 19,1)55 to lin.000; Milwaukee's, 31.957 to 245000 •' New Orleans', 22,K5:5 to .'JSOOOO, New York 1 -, 71,620 to 1 200*000 '• OregonV, nearly low to 4(1.000 ; Philadelphia^, about '50 500 to H. 0,000 ; St. Louid 1 , 28,0«9 to 220.000 ; St PaulV, 2 1 000 to 220 000 • San Francisco's, about 20,000 to 225,000 ; Santa FcV 2660 to i:U,UOU. But the conditions in ISew Mexico are different from those in other parts of the country. In moot of the country missions the population is entirely Catholic, and so are the teachers of the district schools. The diocese of Brooklyn haa over 40,000 young people under Catholic care. Buffalo, 27,1 15, to a total Catholic population of 171,000; Cleveland, about 25,000 to 275,000; Hartford, 25 522 to 270,000 ; Newark, 47,150 to 290,000 ; Rochester, 16,833 to 105 000 ■ Machester. 12,630 to 100.000. ' ' Of 2(31 Catholic journals and magazines, 85 are in foreign languages, German, French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Slavonic, Bohemian, Dutch, India ; New York has one and Chicago two Catholic dailies in the Polish languages ; Fall River, New Bedford Worcester, and Woonsocket, French Catholic dailies ; New York Pittsburg, and St. Louis, German Catholic dailies, and Toledo a Bohemian Catholic daily. The acquisition of the Philippines adds 6,505,998 to the Cathlic population of the United States. The Sandwich Islands give 33,000 more.