Roman Catholicism in New Zealand

The Catholic Church in New Zealand is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, which, inspired by the life, death and teachings of Jesus Christ, and under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Roman curia in Vatican City (within Rome) is the largest Christian church in the world.

Catholic settlers first arrived in the 1820s, with British settlement of New Zealand. Catholicism is the largest New Zealand Christian denomination having, according to the 2013 census, 492,384 members or around 11.07 percent of the total population. In New Zealand there is one Archdiocese (Wellington) and five suffragan dioceses (Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North). There are 530 priests and 1200 men and women religious.

In the 2013 Census, 47.9 percent of the population identified themselves as Christians, while another 38.55 percent indicated that they had no religion and around 7 percent affiliated with other religions. The main Christian denominations are: Roman Catholics (11.07 percent); Anglicans (10.33 percent), Presbyterians (7.44 percent) and "other Christians" (14.63 percent). The 2013 census has shown an actual decline in Catholic adherents with a fall of some 16,000 members. However, the 2013 census also showed that the decline in the membership of the mainline non-Catholic denominations was greater and that the Roman Catholic Church had become the largest New Zealand Christian denomination, passing the Anglican Church for first time in history. The percentage of Catholics in the 1901 Census was 14 percent, though at that time the church was only the third largest denomination.

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