E/CN.4/2000/65 page 31 including territorial prelatures and abbeys, which are not constituted as dioceses but subject to ordinary authority) covered by this survey, including 2,595 of the Latin Rite and 194 of the Eastern Rite. At 31 December 1997, 146 constituencies could not be covered in the survey owing to various difficulties. 120. At the same date, 31 December 1997, the 2,789 constituencies covered in the survey included 425,349 “pastoral centres” (defined as the section of the territory of an ecclesiastical constituency having its own church, a given population and a pastor in charge of the souls of the faithful). This represents an average of 153 such centres per ecclesiastical constituency, the lowest figure being 19 in the Asian Middle East and the highest 212 in Europe. Parishes, on the whole, account on average for 51.6 per cent of all centres. Africa has the lowest proportion (11.8 per cent) and Asia and the Middle East the highest (94.4 per cent). Missionary posts make up 27.1 per cent of all centres, the highest proportion being in Africa (86.3 per cent). At 31 December 1997, there were 90,669 pastoral centres, or 21.5 per cent of the total, which were not canonically established as parishes or missionary posts. 121. At 31 December 1997, the total number of persons following an apostolic vocation (i.e. bishops, priests, established deacons, secular clergy, confirmed nuns and committed laity) was 3,386,809, including 4,420 bishops, 404,208 priests, 24,407 established deacons, 58,310 secular clergy, 819,278 confirmed nuns, 31,197 members of lay institutions, 26,068 non-clerical missionaries and 2,019,021 catechists. These figures are probably an under-estimation, since they do not include persons living in the constituencies who are not covered in the survey. 122. With regard to religious practice, as measured in terms of baptisms, marriages, confirmations and first communions for the year 1997, the figures are as follows: (a) Baptisms: 18,065,091, including 87.3 per cent administered to children under the age of seven; (b) Marriages: 3,534,253 of the Catholic Rite, including 229,685 mixed marriages; (c) Confirmations and first communions: 9,016,244 confirmations and 11,816,170 first communions. 123. There were 114,283 charitable establishments either owned or run by ecclesiastical or religious persons, subdivided as follows: (a) Hospitals: 5,188 (b) Dispensaries: 17,157 (c) Leprosariums: 825 (d) Homes for elderly persons, chronic invalids, invalids and handicapped persons: 12,209