In the birthplace of the Catholic Church, there are a large number of dioceses principally centred in the countries of Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Poland. Italy has the largest number of dioceses per capita of any country, although Brazil has more in total.
An episcopal conference, or bishops' conference, is an official assembly of all the bishops in a defined geographic territory, usually a single country. Andorra and San Marino are part of neighboring foreign dioceses, and so are covered by the Spanish and Italian conferences, respectively. A single conference covers the five nordic countries, and dioceses in Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Monaco are not part of any episcopal conference. In the British Isles, one conference covers the whole of Ireland, a second covers England and Wales (and the crown dependencies), and a third conference covers Scotland.
Dioceses are usually organized into ecclesiastical provinces headed by the archbishop seated in the designated metropolitan archdiocese. Bishops and dioceses subordinated to the metropolitan archbishop are called suffragans. However, not all archbishops are metropolitans. Sometimes an archdiocesan see is suffragan to a metropolitan archbishop, but retains its rank for historical reasons. Some dioceses and archdioceses are not suffragan to a metropolitan see, but are directly subject to the Holy See in Rome.
This list is organized (when applicable) by episcopal conference and ecclesiastical province. Latin Church dioceses are listed in regular font. Dioceses of Eastern Catholic Churches are listed in italics.
(aka Ecclesiastical province of Paderborn)
(aka Ecclesiastical province of Cologne)
(aka Ecclesiastical province of Freiburg im Breisgau)