Pope by numbers: How Francis stacks up

Today, the papal conclave completed its deliberation, electing Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the next pope. The 115 cardinal-electors arrived at their decision after two days of voting; it took five ballots until one candidate finally received the required two-thirds majority — 77 of the 115 votes.  Let’s see where Francis fits into ...

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Today, the papal conclave completed its deliberation, electing Argentina's Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the next pope. The 115 cardinal-electors arrived at their decision after two days of voting; it took five ballots until one candidate finally received the required two-thirds majority -- 77 of the 115 votes. 

Today, the papal conclave completed its deliberation, electing Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be the next pope. The 115 cardinal-electors arrived at their decision after two days of voting; it took five ballots until one candidate finally received the required two-thirds majority — 77 of the 115 votes. 

Let’s see where Francis fits into the papacy, statistically.

NAMES

In 533, a priest named Mercurius was elected pope. Thinking that his name was too pagan, he decided to change his name to one that he didn’t share with a Roman god — John. Since then, all popes have chosen new names upon election, with the exception of Adrian VI, who, elected in 1522, decided to keep his baptismal name. Technically, a pope announces his new name after he has accepted the office, but the cardinals in the running have probably been thinking about their names for a long time.

Some of the most colorful names popes have chosen include Pope Hilarius (461-468), Pope Simplicius (468-483), and Pope Victor (1086-87) (now referred to as Blessed Victor).

The most common names, though, are relatively benign. Here are the most common names in papal history:

John: 21 popes
Gregory: 16 popes
Benedict: 15 (16 if you include an antipope)
Clement: 14 popes
Innocent: 13 popes
Leo: also 13 popes
Pius: 12 popes

Bergoglio may not have chosen a name like Hilarius, but he is the first pope since Lando (913-914) to choose a name that no other pope has chosen before him: Francis, after the playboy turned poverty-fighting saint, Francis of Assisi.

AGE

Complete birth and death records are only available for popes after 1400. Among those popes, the average age elect is 62.4, while the average end age is 71.8.

Francis is 76, on the older side. He is said to have finished second to Benedict in the last conclave.

HOMELAND

Francis is the first non-European pope in the modern history of the Catholic Church. Here are the most common papal homelands:

Italy: 217 popes
France: 17 popes
Greece: 13 popes
Germany: 8 popes

Finally, it seems, the pope reflects the world’s Catholic population. Latin America is home to 41 percent of the world’s Catholics; Europe contains 24 percent.

Elizabeth Ralph is a researcher at Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.
Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes

A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.

A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance

De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat

Is Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ Factual or Farcical?

A former U.S. ambassador, an Iran expert, a Libya expert, and a former U.K. Conservative Party advisor weigh in.

An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.
An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.

The Battle for Eurasia

China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.