Deseret News 2011 Church Almanac
The complete updated membership statistics are available at World LDS Membership.
Last week I obtained a copy of the Deseret News 2011 Church Almanac. There is a lot of information packed into it’s 624 pages. My favorite is the membership statistics that are itemized country by country.
All these membership numbers are all very fine but they would be a lot more useful if they were in an online sortable table. It is the comparison that is interesting — seeing the growth in many countries and the stagnation in a few others.
So I put the world’s LDS Church membership statistics in a sortable table. I added the change in membership from 2007 to 2008 (2008 Δ) and 2008 to 2009 (2009 Δ).
By sorting on the “2009 Δ” column I found that 11 countries out of 168 had a decrease in membership during 2009, though they were small amounts. I discovered that the five biggest increases came from the United States (84,866), Brazil (42,118), Mexico (39,337), Peru (18,463), and the Philippines (17,300).
The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Tonga (45%), Samoa (31%), American Samoa (22.5%), Niue (19.1%), and Kirabati (11.9%). The United States comes in at 14th with 2%, tied with Palau.
The countries with the most members are the United States (6,058,907), Mexico (1,197,573), Brazil (1,102,674), Philippines (631,885), and Chile (561,920). The most temples are in the United States (75), Mexico (12), Canada (7), Brazil (6), and Australia (5).
The most districts are in the Philippines (86) but there are 13 countries with only one stake. However, there are 15 countries with a 2% or more Mormon population.
You can count on finding many more permutations. Try it.
Wow! I didn’t know Bolivia had so many members. Awesome!
Very interesting bro!
Talking about México, I found all statistics related to the last Census here in my Country.
In that information you will find that there are a lot membership, however only 26% aprox. remain as activo in the Church…(314,000 members ).
I hope this information helps…
http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/mexicocifras/
Saludos!
Thank you for the information. When I lived in England, my branch had a low activity rate also.
Oh those new updated numbers do not read well and decrease in increase. The UK was personally disappointed in addition to the US, Mexico and Brazil. Let’s hope 2011 turns up better!
I read recently in the local media (Utah) that the actual number of active LDS members world wide is between 4 and 5 million. Assuming 4.5 million actives and 14.5 million members, yields near 30% active.
Is this accurate from your point of view?
In my current ward here in Utah the activity rate is over 90%. In the branch I attended in England in the 1970s it was 15%. I would think that first you would have to define “active” and then get the statistics from the Church. They keep monthly attendance records for key meetings. Other than that it would be merely guessing, and the guess depending on any media bias for or against the Church.
In my experience, after emigrating to Utah in the 1980s, and living in various wards, all I have ever seen is high attendance rates which have not diminished over the years.
However, my experience doesn’t mean anything, you can only really rely on official Church attendance records, which as far as I know aren’t published.
I do know that when I was a ward clerk, I took care to oversee and record attendance accurately. I am confident that the official records are very accurate.
I find it so cool that you take that time to be accuarte on the number of members there are in the church. I recently have had about 3 members in my little school on my bus become members of the church and it makes me feel so happy to know that people are finding hte truth for themselves. I have alwys thought that it is way more touching to be converted into the church because you truely feel the spirit.
I would be scared to death and wonder a ton if I was making the right decision on joining some church that has been teaching me about what they believe. Although I find it such a blessing to have always have the spirit to guide me everywhere I go.
Anyways the whole reason why I was even on here was because I find it so fasinatig how fast we have grown in such short of a time. So thanks for your help:):):)
It was a little easier for me to join the Church as I was 21 at the time. I had past experiences to compare with what life following Christ would be like. In the end though it was the Spirit of God that influenced me the most.
Why did it take me until 21 to find the truth? Because I knew not where to find it.