It has an area of 75,000 sq. km. with a population of 840,000 inhabitants, of whom 735,000 are Catholics; it comprises 55 parishes served by 97 diocesan priests and 77 religious; it has 1 seminary, 7 male religious communities and 51 female (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 310).
The diocese was created by Pius IX with a bull of 13 June 1859 as a suffragan of Buenos Aires. The first bishop was Msgr. José Gabriel Segura y Curas, who took possession of the see on 3 June 1860. His successors were Msgrs. José María Gelabert y Crespo (1865); Rosendo de la Lastra y Gordillo (1909); Abel Buzan y Bustos (1911). Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Nobilis Argentinae nationis* of 20 April 1934 raised the diocese of Paraná to the status of a metropolitan see, assigning as its suffragans the dioceses of Corrientes and Santiago del Estero.
The first and present archbishop is Msgr. Z. L. Guilland, appointed on 18 September 1934 and consecrated on 3 March 1935.