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    OC: It’s been nearly 200 years since a conclave took longer than a week, with modern conclaves typically taking two to three days.
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    OC: It’s been nearly 200 years since a conclave took longer than a week, with modern conclaves typically taking two to three days.

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    1. nbcnews on

      Catholic cardinals from around the world are converging on Vatican City in advance of [the conclave ](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-dead-what-happens-next-rcna128745)that will elect the successor to [Pope Francis, who died Monday](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-dies-rcna192559). [Favorites have emerged](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/francis-dies-who-will-be-next-pope-rcna103044), and once the conclave begins it likely won’t be long before a new pope is announced, as data shows that conclaves don’t take as long as they used to. 

      Conclaves were first used to elect a pope [about eight centuries ago](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7373429), with early elections lasting months, even years. 

      More here: [https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/pope-how-long-conclave-cardinals-papal-names-oldest-age-charts-rcna201635](https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/pope-how-long-conclave-cardinals-papal-names-oldest-age-charts-rcna201635)

    3. LoveOfSpreadsheets on

      There’s probably a bunch of Whatsapp chats going about before the conclave, where in the past all the cardinals had to get all the way to the Vatican to begin their campaigning. It’s a connected world even for the clergy.

    5. AMWJ on

      The graphic doesn’t actually show the fact in your headline, and it just shows that the *shortest* conclaves have been from recent years, allowing for there to be longer ones interspersed among the conclaves of the last year. I would love an accompanying graphic showing the longest and shortest conclaves of, say, each century.

      Also, so we have any idea why they are getting shorter? Naively, travel took far longer back in the day, as did communication, so could the longer times simply be due to it taking time for people to get there?

    6. Dear-Technician7020 on

      Maybe there is a connection with the actual power that the church held at the time of the papal conclaves?

    7. Anfros on

      If we are going to have corporations posting here can we at least demand that they actually make beautiful data reoresentations.

    8. Ribbitor123 on

      Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Benedict XIV. Apparently, he was an avid gambler. He frequently used profane language.

    10. Skamanda42 on

      To be fair, it’s a lot quicker and easier to communicate with people all around the planet than it was in the past…

    11. Lagrangian21 on

      It’s pretty insane how much quicker they can figure out who the big man’s representative in Earth should be!

      I guess that goes to show the advances in divine communication that have been made in recent times.

      Can you believe it used to take DAYS to communicate with it, nowadays we can get a chat up in a few hours! 😇

      (Obligatory /s jic)

    15. Firespryte01 on

      This would be more beautiful and useful if it showed each conclave in order, working backwards, and how much time it took for the conclave to reach a conclusion. As it is, we aren’t 100% certain how long it’s been since the previous Pope took office.

    16. X0AN on

      Not to mention Pope Francis hand picked 108 out of the 135 cardinals can vote.

      So his successor is mostly likely already picked, so voting won’t take long.

    17. FernandoFuenzalida on

      Would be great to see this data in chronological order instead….

      I think it would better convey what you’re trying to show (that more recent conclaves are shorter)

    18. TophatOwl_ on

      In fairness, the office of Pope was far more powerful around the 16-18 hundrets. Especially earlier, you were effectively crowned one of the most powerful men in europe. So it makes sense that it would take the cardinals longer to decide because they would have to give up power themselves and pick someone else.

    21. irate_alien on

      https://preview.redd.it/j2xnokicaowe1.png?width=1576&format=png&auto=webp&s=081eaed7190bc3ac873fb5860019272a05c43148

      Here’s what all the data look like back to 1400 (hopefully no transcription errors by me). It’s not very beautiful, not sure how else to do it other than a scatter. But you can see that things changed after the mid-19th century. Same source (catholic-hierarchy.org). Mean is 32 days and stdev is 50. Mean from 1400-1900 is 38 days (stdev of 45). Mean from 1600-1900 is 62 days (stdev 50). Mean from 1900-present is 3 days (stdev 1). The histogram is interesting too. 40 of the 63 took less than 26 days.

    23. Traditional-Meat-549 on

      I’m trying to understand a few things. Why would nonCatholics be interested in this election and what do they think a new Pope is going to do that others haven’t?