Deseret News Church Almanacs and the Liahona were used as the data sources. The almanac started in 1974 as an annual publication, then became biennial in 1984, then annual again in 2002. With access to records and the LDS Church Historical Department, the almanac prints some material not available in other publications. It contains history and membership statistics of geographical areas for the year ending before the previous year (e.g., the 2009 almanac includes data up to the year-end 2007).
Japanese LDS membership 1930 to 1971 from the 1975 Church Almanac
There was no membership data for Japan in the 1974 edition. In 1975, membership was published for each decade from 1930 to 1970, plus the years 1965, 1967, and 1971. The almanac of 1976 offered no new information for Japan. The 1977 to 1983 editions yielded data for 1975 to 1981 respectively, except for the 1978 almanac, containing data for 1976, to which I do not yet have access.
The biennial almanacs run from the 1984-1985 edition to the 2001-2002 edition. For the biennial years we only get membership totals every two years. The 1986-1987 edition to the 1999-2000 edition rounded the membership numbers but this ceased in the 2001-2002 edition.
The 2009 membership data comes from the Japan country profile at LDS Newsroom.
In these comments Jonathen posted additional membership information. Below is page 63 from Seito no Michi, June 1982. See the comments for his sources.
Japanese LDS membership 1901 to 1981 (click to enlarge)
.
Table of Japanese Membership
I have used Jonathen’s data as the primary source. For some of the years we only have the Almanac source. Where both sources are available but yield different totals, Jonathen’s source prevails but the Almanac numbers are noted. In some instances it appears that one of the sources may be off one year. For example, see 1966 and 1967, and 1970 and 1971.
| Year | Members | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | ||
| 1902 | 3 | |
| 1903 | ||
| 1904 | ||
| 1905 | 17 | |
| 1906 | ||
| 1907 | ||
| 1908 | ||
| 1909 | ||
| 1910 | 41 | |
| 1911 | 51 | |
| 1912 | 51 | |
| 1913 | 57 | |
| 1914 | ||
| 1915 | ||
| 1916 | ||
| 1917 | ||
| 1918 | 105 | |
| 1919 | ||
| 1920 | 127 | |
| 1921 | ||
| 1922 | ||
| 1923 | ||
| 1924 | 166 | |
| 1925 | Mission closed | |
| 1926 | Mission closed | |
| 1927 | Mission closed | |
| 1928 | Mission closed | |
| 1929 | Mission closed | |
| 1930 | Mission closed | |
| 1931 | Mission closed | |
| 1932 | Mission closed | |
| 1933 | Mission closed | |
| 1934 | Mission closed | |
| 1935 | Mission closed | |
| 1936 | Mission closed | |
| 1937 | Mission closed | |
| 1938 | Mission closed | |
| 1939 | Mission closed | |
| 1940 | 60 | Mission closed |
| 1941 | Mission closed | |
| 1942 | Mission closed | |
| 1943 | Mission closed | |
| 1944 | Mission closed | |
| 1945 | Mission closed | |
| 1946 | Mission closed | |
| 1947 | Mission closed | |
| 1948 | Mission closed | |
| 1949 | 211 | |
| 1950 | 433 | Almanac = 211 |
| 1951 | 709 | |
| 1952 | 946 | |
| 1953 | 1,117 | |
| 1954 | 1,209 | |
| 1955 | ||
| 1956 | 1,315 | |
| 1957 | 1,811 | |
| 1958 | 2,341 | |
| 1959 | 2,783 | |
| 1960 | 4,157 | Almanac = 2,502 |
| 1961 | 5,203 | |
| 1962 | 5,976 | |
| 1963 | 7,695 | |
| 1964 | 8,599 | |
| 1965 | 9,012 | Almanac = 7,963 |
| 1966 | 9,484 | |
| 1967 | 10,110 | Almanac = 9,484 |
| 1968 | 11,487 | |
| 1969 | 12,485 | |
| 1970 | 14,890 | Almanac = 11,868 |
| 1971 | 13,010 | Almanac = 14,890 |
| 1972 | 19,902 | |
| 1973 | 22,653 | |
| 1974 | 24,840 | |
| 1975 | 27,516 | |
| 1976 | 29,374 | |
| 1977 | 31,948 | |
| 1978 | 34,969 | |
| 1979 | 45,958 | |
| 1980 | 52,576 | Almanac = 57,093 |
| 1981 | 69,809 | Almanac = 65,682 |
| 1982 | ||
| 1983 | 70,998 | |
| 1984 | ||
| 1985 | 82,000 | |
| 1986 | ||
| 1987 | 85,000 | |
| 1988 | ||
| 1989 | 91,000 | |
| 1990 | ||
| 1991 | 99,484 | |
| 1992 | ||
| 1993 | 103,000 | |
| 1994 | ||
| 1995 | 106,000 | |
| 1996 | 108,000 | |
| 1997 | 108,000 | This may belong in 1996 |
| 1998 | ||
| 1999 | 110,987 | |
| 2000 | ||
| 2001 | 117,329 | |
| 2002 | 118,508 | |
| 2003 | 119,267 | |
| 2004 | 120,197 | |
| 2005 | 121,068 | |
| 2006 | 121,774 | |
| 2007 | 122,442 | |
| 2008 | 123,245 | |
| 2009 | 124,041 |
Last updated 29 May 2010
