Difference between revisions of "Church growth"

Revision as of 15:54, 13 April 2010

Worldwide, there were over 13,800,000 Mormons at the end of 2009, nearly the same as the number of Jews.

In the United States the LDS Church is the 4th largest individual denomination with over 5.5 million members, a population about equal to the number of Muslims. The Church had a healthy growth rate in the United States of 1.74% during 2006. (To see comparative sizes of the 25 largest U.S. churches, go to the National Council of Churches website [1])

Only 12% of all Mormons live in Utah. Most Mormons do not live in North America.

Aside from the United States, other regions with significant Mormon populations include Mexico and Asia (1 million members each), South America (3 million members), and Central America and Europe (about half a million each). The rapid growth the Church has been experiencing in Africa, where there are already a quarter of a million members, is particularly exciting.

After the Catholic Church, the LDS Church is the largest sect in ten U.S. states.

Religious Alliances

One way to classify religions is by grouping them into religious alliances. Religious alliances include those churches with central leadership and doctrinal uniformity (e.g. the Catholic Church) as well as those that lack central leadership. An example of the latter type is the “Assembly of God alliance,” which is comprised of many churches that are generally classified together even though each congregation has autonomy to teach as it pleases.

The LDS Church is the 15th largest religious alliance in the world and the 8th largest international religious alliance.

Religious Bodies

When one considers only religious bodies, i.e. those religions with central leadership and doctrinal unity...

The LDS Church is the 9th largest religious body in the world and the 4th largest international religious body.

(Note that for some religions, particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church, classification as a unified religious body was hard to determine.)

Ubiquity

It is also interesting to consider those religions that are the most ubiquitous (meaning most likely to have a meeting place "near you").

The LDS Church is the 5th most ubiquitous religious alliance in the world and the 4th most ubiquitous religious body.

Worldwide Statistics

LDS Worldwide Statistics (2004)[2]: Tonga: 46.0%. Samoa: 36.0%. American Samoa: 24.1%. Niue: 12.0%. Kiribati: 10.7%. Tahiti: 7.8%. Cook Islands: 8.3%. Marshall Islands: 7.0%. Chile: 3.3%. Palau: 2.1%. USA: 1.9%. Uruguay: 2.5%. New Zealand: 2.35%. Guatemala: 1.34%. Honduras: 1.6%. Bolivia: 1.6%. Ecuador: 1.2%. Peru: 1.4%. Belize: 1.0%.

USA: 5,503,192. Mexico: 980,053. Brazil: 897,091. Chile: 534,754. Philippines: 537,014. Peru: 402,230. Argentina: 339,929. United Kingdom: 180,095. Guatemala: 196,777 Canada: 166,442.

Worldwide, there are over 25,000 LDS congregations, and the basic Church curriculum text is available in over 175 languages. The Church creates about two new congregations every day.

The majority of Mormons worldwide (55%) are not Caucasian.

There are estimated to be between 350,000 and 500,000 members of the Church with African heritage, though exact numbers are unknown because the Church does not keep track of the race of its members. About 150,000 live in Africa, 10,000 (or more) in Brazil, 20,000 in the Caribbean, and perhaps as many as 50,000 in the U.S.

70% of Mormons worldwide were not born into the faith.

U.S. Statistics

LDS U.S. Statistics (2006):

Utah: 71.76%. (11/2007 news reports in Utah declare a new low of 60.7%) [3] Idaho: 27%. Wyoming: 11%. Nevada: 7.1%. Arizona: 6.0%. Montana: 4.6%. Hawaii: 5.1%. Oregon: 4.0%. Washington: 3.9%. Alaska: 4.2%.

Utah: 1,720,434. California: 761,763. Idaho: 376,661. Arizona: 346,677. Washington: 241,908. Texas: 243,957. Oregon: 141,482. Nevada: 165,498. Colorado: 126,118. Florida: 123,209.

Some surveys suggest that the LDS Church has the highest U.S. attendance and service rates.

Growth Rate

The growth of the LDS Church is among the fastest of any denomination on the planet.

In the last 50 years, membership has increased ten-fold.

For the last 15 years, an average of 800 people have joined the LDS Church every day.

Absolute growth is greatest in Latin America, but the rate of growth is highest in Africa and the former Soviet bloc.

In 1984, a prominent non-LDS researcher estimated that our membership would top 265 million by 2080 and said we would be the “first 'new' major world religion since Islam.” So far growth has exceeded his model's predictions.

See Also

• Complete worldwide membership statistics
• Membership statistics by state

External Links

For sources, see AllAboutMormons.com.

• The Souls Beyond the Statistics
• Church growth in 2009