Lds Membership Numbers

[Thinking]

In 1999 the church reported 10,752,986 members and 25,793 congregations which calculates to 417 members per congregation (M/C). The Church recently released its 2010 statistics at 14,131,467 members, 28,660 congregations or 493 M/C. Listed below are the statistics for each year since 1999.

1999: 417 M/C (10,752,986/25,793)

2000: 427 M/C (11,068,861/25,915)

2001: 437 M/C (11,394,522/26,084)

2002: 448 M/C (11,721,548/26,143)

2003: 457 M/C (11,985,254/26,237)

2004: 460 M/C (12,275,822/26,670)

2005: 464 M/C (12,560,869/27,087)

2006: 468 M/C (12,868,606/27,475)

2007: 474 M/C (13,193,999/27,827)

2008: 481 M/C (13,508,509/28,109)

2009: 486 M/C (13,824,854/28,424)

2010: 493 M/C (14,131,467/28,660)

Utah has 1,910,343 members and 4,834 congregations for 395 M/C. Without Utah's numbers the Church has 12,221,124 members and 23,826 congregations or 513 M/C.

I believe the increase in the number of members per congregation is evidence that attendance rates are dropping.

[rockslider]

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1583

John mentions in this presentation that active membership rates are at 18%. it was suggested that is based on once per month attendance.

He would not name the source but indicated it was from way up the ladder.

I saw somewhere recently that his brother is way up the ladder.

http://www.ldscio.org/

2010: 88 M/C (2,543,664/28,660)

[scooby]

How many Utah tithing envelopes are required to pay for a chapel?

How many Honduras tithing envelopes are required to pay for a chapel?

Globalization may necessitate an increase in congregation size.

[ERayR]

In 1999 the church reported 10,752,986 members and 25,793 congregations which calculates to 417 members per congregation (M/C). The Church recently released its 2010 statistics at 14,131,467 members, 28,660 congregations or 493 M/C. Listed below are the statistics for each year since 1999.

1999: 417 M/C (10,752,986/25,793)

2000: 427 M/C (11,068,861/25,915)

2001: 437 M/C (11,394,522/26,084)

2002: 448 M/C (11,721,548/26,143)

2003: 457 M/C (11,985,254/26,237)

2004: 460 M/C (12,275,822/26,670)

2005: 464 M/C (12,560,869/27,087)

2006: 468 M/C (12,868,606/27,475)

2007: 474 M/C (13,193,999/27,827)

2008: 481 M/C (13,508,509/28,109)

2009: 486 M/C (13,824,854/28,424)

2010: 493 M/C (14,131,467/28,660)

Utah has 1,910,343 members and 4,834 congregations for 395 M/C. Without Utah's numbers the Church has 12,221,124 members and 23,826 congregations or 513 M/C.

I believe the increase in the number of members per congregation is evidence that attendance rates are dropping.

And your point is?

[jskains]

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1583

John mentions in this presentation that active membership rates are at 18%. it was suggested that is based on once per month attendance.

He would not name the source but indicated it was from way up the ladder.

I saw somewhere recently that his brother is way up the ladder.

http://www.ldscio.org/

2010: 88 M/C (2,543,664/28,660)

John is full of hot air. I talk to ward clerks both in Utah and outside and the 50% marker has been fairly steady. I think people are looking into numbers for dirt.

JMS

[rockslider]

I was at a baby blessing about two months ago, in a very Mormon dominate town (population wise), I’d guess there were roughly 90 people in the chapel for sacrament meeting.

I went to my ward a few times this last year and it did strike me how vacant the chapel was verses my memories of 20 years previously as our wards/stakes keep growing and splitting (full to opening according doors each week). I’m guessing a SLC area type chapel comfortably holds what, 300 without opening up to the cultural hall?

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

[ELF1024]

I was at a baby blessing about two months ago, in a very Mormon dominate town (population wise), I’d guess there were roughly 90 people in the chapel for sacrament meeting.

I went to my ward a few times this last year and it did strike me how vacant the chapel was verses my memories of 20 years previously as our wards/stakes keep growing and splitting (full to opening according doors each week). I’m guessing a SLC area type chapel comfortably holds what, 300 without opening up to the cultural hall?

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

We just changed wards down here in Arizona, we went from one full chapel and overflowing into the cultural hall; to a stake center that is overflowing into the cultural hall. We have three wards in at least one of the buildings.

[rockslider]

Side note: it always interested me how engaged/special some of the Arizona areas have been over a long time. With the likes of Snowflake and Messa really standing out.

[LeSellers]

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

Not enough room to swing a kneazle.

We split our ward a few years ago, and where we had had the largest Primary in the stake, we then had the smallest. We now have the largest again.

Lehi

[19nazzy]

John is full of hot air. I talk to ward clerks both in Utah and outside and the 50% marker has been fairly steady. I think people are looking into numbers for dirt.

JMS

As a clerk outside of the Utah area, our activity rate roughly about 33%. It was definitely a lot higher than the 18% claim.

[Mike Richards]

In our ward here in Dayton, Ohio we run about 40% attendance on any given Sunday. Our previous ward in Oklahoma City was running about 25%. That ward was merged with another unit shortly after we left. I believe the other unit had (and the new unit now has) about the same rate of attendance, near 25%.

[ELF1024]

Side note: it always interested me how engaged/special some of the Arizona areas have been over a long time. With the likes of Snowflake and Messa really standing out.

I think they have broken ground for a new Ward Building in our area. I know for sure that they have the land purchased. We're not in Snowflake or Mesa, just in Sierra Vista, near where the Mormon Battalion was rumored to cross the San Pedro.

I hope the new building ends up being one of the new "green" buildings they have been talking about. One of those new buildings went into my home town of Farmington, Utah.

[cinepro]

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

My ward meets in a stake center, and we fill the chapel every week (no overflow area) and about 10 rows into the cultural hall. The other two wards in the building appear to do the same as well.

But I'm in a suburb of Los Angeles where many families are moving to get out of the city. So while the Church has "grown" a lot in my area in the last decade, they're consolidating stakes and wards in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley as the numbers shrink from members moving out.

[mfbukowski]

I think those numbers very clearly indicate that people are getting thinner than they were in 1999, so each chapel can hold more people.

It's blatantly obvious.

[Areabird]

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1583

John mentions in this presentation that active membership rates are at 18%. it was suggested that is based on once per month attendance.

He would not name the source but indicated it was from way up the ladder.

I saw somewhere recently that his brother is way up the ladder.

http://www.ldscio.org/

2010: 88 M/C (2,543,664/28,660)

When he mentions 18% is he talking about U.S. membership activity or world wide activity? If it is worldwide, then 18% sounds plausible.

I'd listen to the podcast to find this out but it appears to be over an hour long....

[rockslider]

When he mentions 18% is he talking about U.S. membership activity or world wide activity? If it is worldwide, then 18% sounds plausible.

I'd listen to the podcast to find this out but it appears to be over an hour long....

world wide for sure.

yea, might have been 1hr 20 minutes even ... it was around the hour mark I believe. looking for you now

[rockslider]

I think those numbers very clearly indicate that people are getting thinner than they were in 1999, so each chapel can hold more people.

It's blatantly obvious.

If I remember right, we started actively on this board about the same time. I know that I cycle badly from one side of the fence to another, so no room to talk.

I have not been around much for some time, you seem to have grown quite cynical of late.

I hope that all is well with you and yours.

[mfbukowski]

My ward meets in a stake center, and we fill the chapel every week (no overflow area) and about 10 rows into the cultural hall. The other two wards in the building appear to do the same as well.

But I'm in a suburb of Los Angeles where many families are moving to get out of the city. So while the Church has "grown" a lot in my area in the last decade, they're consolidating stakes and wards in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley as the numbers shrink from members moving out.

Another phenomenon is that the Spanish stakes in LA are growing- I know of one ward with a sacrament attendance of over 300 every Sunday.

On the other hand, we have more Spanish members in the English wards because as the kids grow up, they don't speak Spanish anymore, so if the parents want the kids to learn the gospel, they often bring them to English wards even if they don't speak English all that well themselves.

Of course many totally bilingual people who speak perfect accentless English attend the Spanish wards for tradition's sake, or just because they like to speak Spanish. And many Gringo RM's who have married Spanish sisters and who went on missions to Latin countries also attend the Spanish wards just to keep up their fluency in Spanish.

Our ward which is probably about 6 miles by 4 or something close, is overlayed by different corners of three different Spanish wards, one of which as I said is huge.

So even if I gave every detail of our attendance, it would be misleading about how many members live in our area. Similarly, we have a singles ward and a Samoan ward which also draw from our area, which used to not even exist.

So though "our" ward numbers have probably gone down, the total number of members in the same area has grown incredibly.

So attendance per ward is totally meaningless.

[Hamba Tuhan]

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

I can do better than that. I can give you the actual numbers from both my ward and my stake from the past year, using quarterly reports:

Ward

2010-2: 31%

2010-3: 30%

2010-4: 34%

2011-1: 36%

That's an increase in average sacrament-meeting attendance of 16.1% in one year.

Stake

2010-2: 32%

2010-3: 32%

2010-4: 33%

2011-1: 37%

That's an increase in average sacrament-meeting attendance of 15.6% in one year.

And, for what it's worth, I live very much in the 'worldwide Church' and in an area where our congregations have been static in both numbers and borders.

[Hamba Tuhan]

An interesting trend to watch is congregational growth. Over the past decade, the US has seen an increase of 2,039 congregations.

[rockslider]

Well, it’s good to hear that all is well in the areas reported. John’s tone, as well as my sentiments is one of seriousness and sorrow. I’m sure there is joy in the hope of diminishing numbers to some, but not all.

Semi public events in this arena over the last week have exhausted and saddened me.

I fear there may be more to come.

[cinepro]

I think those numbers very clearly indicate that people are getting thinner than they were in 1999, so each chapel can hold more people.

It's blatantly obvious.

It would be funnier if there were even the slightest chance it were true...

[Nathair/|\]

I can tell you that in my ward, we have to open up the overflow, and that's in a stake center.

[seriously honestly]

I was at a baby blessing about two months ago, in a very Mormon dominate town (population wise), I’d guess there were roughly 90 people in the chapel for sacrament meeting.

I went to my ward a few times this last year and it did strike me how vacant the chapel was verses my memories of 20 years previously as our wards/stakes keep growing and splitting (full to opening according doors each week). I’m guessing a SLC area type chapel comfortably holds what, 300 without opening up to the cultural hall?

I don’t go much, so report up, what it is like in your ward. Is your chapel full every Sunday?

I don't have the actual numbers, but I know membership is down where I live. The stake president was concerned about it and made it the focus at stake conference, and concluded by strongly encouraged members to seek out 5 non-LDS friends to try and introduce to the LDS church in order to get the numbers up (the missionaries even passed out a "worksheet" of shorts so you could write there names down and times when you could invite them over for discussions).

[mfbukowski]

Well, it’s good to hear that all is well in the areas reported. John’s tone, as well as my sentiments is one of seriousness and sorrow. I’m sure there is joy in the hope of diminishing numbers to some, but not all.

Semi public events in this arena over the last week have exhausted and saddened me.

I fear there may be more to come.

Why all the mystery? You allude to stuff but refuse to say what you're talking about, as if we are supposed to know what you mean.

I sure don't! I suppose it is about John Dehlin again- what happened?

If I am cynical, it is not about the church but about the forum. It just seems like a lot of meaningless blather to me lately. I am sorry that it appears that you have grown more cynical, I recall a few moments when it seemed that you were moving in the other direction. But I wish you well always.