Demographics

Church Growth/Demographics

   * Worldwide, there are over 12 million Mormons, 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.
   * 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 Catholics, the LDS Church is the largest sect in ten U.S. states.

---

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.

---

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.)

---

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.

(Accurate as of 1999? See Adherents.com.) LDS Worldwide Statistics (old): Country Percent LDS Country Number of LDS Tonga

32.0%

USA

4,900,000 Samoa

25.0%

Mexico

800,000 American Samoa

25.0%

Brazil

650,000 Niue

15.0%

Chile

400,000 Kiribati

6.0%

Philippines

389,000 Tahiti

6.0%

Peru

300,000 Cook Islands

5.0%

Argentina

282,000 Marshall Islands

4.0%

United Kingdom

180,000 Chile

2.5%

Guatemala

166,000 Palau

2.0%

Canada

151,000 USA

1.9%

Uruguay

1.8%

New Zealand

1.5%

Guatemala

1.3%

Honduras

1.2%

Bolivia

1.1%

Ecuador

1.1%

Peru

1.1%

Belize

1.1%

(Accurate as of 1990? See Adherents.com.) LDS U.S. Statistics (old):

State

Percent LDS

State

Number of LDS Utah

71.76%

Utah

1,236,242 Idaho

26.63%

California

533,741 Wyoming

10.10%

Idaho

268,060 Nevada

7.41%

Arizona

199,761 Arizona

5.45%

Washington

150,634 Montana

3.58%

Texas

111,276 Hawaii

3.46%

Oregon

89,601 Oregon

3.15%

Nevada

89,033 Washington

3.10%

Colorado

70,313 Alaska

2.86%

Florida

59,845

(Accurate as of 1990. See Adherents.com.)

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.

(Accurate as of ~2004. See LDS Quick Facts and Ford Motor.)

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

(Accurate as of 2006. See Ford Motor.)

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.

(Accurate as of 2001. See Black Mormon.)

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

(Accurate as of 2006. See Ford Motor.) The growth of the LDS Church is exponential and 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.

(Accurate as of ~2003. See LDS Quick Facts and Ford Motor.)

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

(Accurate as of 2006. See Ford Motor.)