Report on the Age Profile of Diocesan Priests

18 Nov 2013

Introduction

This is the second age profile of the priests currently assigned to parish ministry in dioceses in Ireland. It updates the data presented by a similar report in 2011. In October 2013, I sent each Diocesan Secretary a questionnaire asking three questions:

1. The number of parishes in that diocese

2. The number of Diocesan priests currently assigned to parish ministry in that diocese

3. The number of Diocesan priests (include only those currently assigned to ministry) in one of seven age groups.

This was to establish a profile of Diocesan priests currently in ministry (hereafter known as priests) across the 26 dioceses of Ireland. By mid-November, all 26 dioceses had returned their completed questionnaires. The Report outlines the data that arose from this questionnaire and a short comparison with a similar survey of dioceses completed in 2007 and the 2011 survey.

Please download the full report here.