Another Random Cardinal Chart

After posting the previous charts, someone asked a good question: how many Cardinals are created per year?

The Chart (Warning: PDF format)

So I ran the numbers and created a new chart showing the number of Cardinals created per papacy and the average number of Cardinals created per year.

The result is that beginning with the 17th century, the number of Cardinals created per year was around 4 until about 50 years ago. There was one obvious exception, Pope Alexander VIII (who averaged 10.77).

Beginning with Pope John XXIII, the average has been just under 9 per year. Pope Benedict XVI is current just over 7 per year.

(The overall answer is an average of 4.6 Cardinals created per year over the last 400 years.)