For an updated article see: 2025 Map of Cardinals and the Papal Conclave
The conclave to elect the new pope is set to convene on March 12, 2013. Starting on Tuesday, those cardinals aged under 80 years (those born on or after February 28, 1933) will be able to cast their vote for the 266th pontiff. The total number of eligible cardinals numbers 115 and hail from 50 different countries from around the world.
Geography of Cardinals
Italy is the country with the most cardinals at 28. The United States has the second highest number of cardinals with 11. Spain, Germany, India, and Brazil follow with five cardinals each. Rounding out the top ten are France and Poland with four each.
Looking at the distribution of cardinals by continent, shows that Europe far exceeds any other geographic area with 59 out of the total 115 voting eligible cardinals. The Holy Press Office has a detailed breakdown of cardinals by geographic area and country.
Total Number of Cardinals by Geographic Area
| Cardinals by Geographic Area | Count |
|---|---|
| Europe | 59 |
| Latin America | 19 |
| North America | 14 |
| Africa | 11 |
| Asia | 11 |
| Oceania | 1 |
Map of Cardinals
Below is amap showing using radial lines to show where each voting eligible cardinal that has recently arrived for the conclave has originated from based on his office. To create this map, the place of origin based on the office was geocoded before creating radial lines using ArcGIS. The color of each radial line is color coded to show the nationality by geographic region for each cardinal. The source of the list of cardinals is from Wikipedia. Click on the map image for access to the larger PDF version.
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- Red = Latin America
- Teal = North America
- Blue = Africa
- Orange = Europe
- Green = Asia
- Yellow = Oceania (not colored coded due to legibility)
Seeing the radial lines on this map gives a great visual of where each cardinal is coming from.
Another interactive map … http://goo.gl/o2bsy
Very nice. Interesting information, Caitlin.
Do they fly coach to get to the Vatican?
the Holy Father’s announcement:
“As was previously announced, on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, I will have the joy of holding a Consistory, during which I will name 16 new Cardinals, who, coming from 12 countries from every part of the world, represent the deep ecclesial relationship between the Church of Rome and the other Churches throughout the world.”
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/01/12/pope_francis_announces_names_of_new_cardinals/en1-763352
of the Vatican Radio website