By Staff Reporter, Catholic Herald - The number of Catholics in the world increased by 12.5 million in 2015 to a total of nearly 1.3 billion people… Figures reported by the Fides News Service show an increase on all continents, except Europe. Africa saw 7.4 million new Catholics, North and South America 4.8 million, Asia 1.6 million and Oceania 123,000. Europe’s Catholic population decreased by 1.3 million.