--- description: American nuns have expressed "great concern" about their aging workforce, according to a Vatican survey released Tuesday title: Vatican Report Finds American Nuns are a Graying Workforce image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7518868b501e3fe/69876f10e20a8707e4a840c2/new-york-nuns-catholic.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [faith](/tag/faith/) ## faith Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Vatican Report Finds American Nuns are a Graying Workforce  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 16, 2014 1:30 PM CUT  Nuns pray during a mass in celebration of Pope Benedict XVI at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Feb. 28, 2013. Nuns pray during a mass in celebration of Pope Benedict XVI at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Feb. 28, 2013.Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 16, 2014 1:30 PM CUT American nuns have expressed “great concern” about their aging workforce, according to a [Vatican survey](http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/12/16/0963/02078.html "undefined") released Tuesday that finds nuns in the U.S. are advancing in age and declining in number. Vatican surveyors sent questionnaires and conducted “sister-to-sister” dialogues at 341 Catholic institutions across the United States. They found that nuns had reached an average age of mid-to-late 70’s, opening up an ever-widening age gap with fresh recruits. The report also noted that the total number of apostolic women, at 50,000, had declined by 125,000 since the the mid-1960s. “Many sisters expressed great concern during the Apostolic Visitation for the continuation of their charism and mission, because of the numerical decline in their membership,” the Report on the Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Religious Women in the United States of America said. The report also upended expectations that it would take a more critical stance of American nuns for a rising “secular mentality” and “a certain ‘feminist’ spirit,” as one Vatican official warned in 2009, Crux [reports.](http://www.cruxnow.com/ "undefined") Instead, the report largely praised American nuns for their “dedicated and selfless service.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3635557/vatican-nuns-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3635557/vatican-nuns-report/"},"headline":"Vatican Report Finds American Nuns are a Graying Workforce","datePublished":"2014-12-16T13:30:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:28.960Z","description":"Nuns express \"great concern\" about declining numbers, average age in mid-70s","url":"https://time.com/3635557/vatican-nuns-report/","keywords":["faith","Living","Religion","Catholic Church","Vatican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7518868b501e3fe/69876f10e20a8707e4a840c2/new-york-nuns-catholic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7518868b501e3fe/69876f10e20a8707e4a840c2/new-york-nuns-catholic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-RELIGION-POPE-MASS","caption":"US-RELIGION-POPE-MASS","creditText":"Emmanuel Dunand—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3635557/vatican-nuns-report/","name":"Vatican Report Finds American Nuns are a Graying Workforce"}}]}] ```