Age at Consecration: Comparing Three Popes Appointments

This is a look at the age at consecration of bishops named by the current and previous two Popes. To help simplify things, I've excluded those consecrated in the first 3 months of a Pope's reign (since they were likely named by the previous Pope).

	Overall	John Paul II	Benedict XVI	Francis
Count	5,675	3,912	1,282	481
Youngest	29.7	29.7	37.0	37.9
Average	53.1	52.8	53.9	54.3
Median	52.5	52.1	52.9	53.7
Oldest	91.8	82.0	91.8	73.0

The median is probably the best gauge to use since it reduces the impact of outliers. We can see a minor upward trend in the consecration ages under the 3 Popes.

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues during the remainder of the reign of Pope Francis.