In the days since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, talk has turned toward who the next pope should be, and where he should be from.
Like most previous popes, Benedict hails from Europe. But as he often lamented, the church there suffers through a steady decline. Meanwhile, Catholicism is booming in Africa and predominates in Latin America.
A Pew Research Center study of the global Catholic populace brings the church’s southern migration into high relief.