Map of Cardinals

Caitlin Dempsey

Updated:

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 AreaCount
Europe59
Latin America19
North America14
Africa11
Asia11
Oceania1

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)
World map with radial lines showing where each cardinal arrived from.
Map showing where in the world each cardinal arrived from for the 2013 papal conclave. Map: Caitlin Dempsey.
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About the author
Caitlin Dempsey
Caitlin Dempsey is the editor of Geography Realm and holds a master's degree in Geography from UCLA as well as a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from SJSU.

4 thoughts on “Map of Cardinals”

  1. 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

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