So the church claims it's growing rapidly, has reached the 15 million member milestone and that it has many more members outside of the U.S. than therein.

I have travelled to many different parts of the world but have yet to see any great Mormon presence.

The two countries I have seen an LDS presence in were New Zealand and of course the U.S.

While living in New Zealand I saw at least 3 chapels and while in California I couldn't but notice the huge L.A. temple.

Can anyone else name countries which have a notable LDS presence?

Brasil?

I know lots of missionaries that have gone there. Like 80% of missionaries I know.

From adherents.com (date of data not provided)

Top 20 Nations with Highest Proportion
of Latter-day Saints in the Population


Country Percent

Tonga 32.0%
Samoa 25.0
American Samoa 25.0
Niue 15.0
Kiribati 6.0
Tahiti 6.0
Cook Islands 5.0
Marshall Islands 4.0
Chile 2.5
Palau 2.0
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

Thanks for putting that up. I knew it was South Pacific after I read the OP.

You saved me googling for it.

What or who is the source of this data? I think the numbers could be from LDSInc., as they seem to reflect the LDSInc. tendency to "inflate".

I doubt very much, for example, that 32% of Tongans would self-identify as LDS. I even doubt that 32% of Tongans ahve been baptized LDS. And we all know that 1.9% Americans are not self-reported LDS.

Brazil supposedly has close to a million members. They've built several new temples there in the last 10-12 years. My mission in Brazil was huge, but there were only 3 chapels. Most branches met in rented houses. We had 140-150 missionaries in the mission and most wards/branches had 4-8 missionaries, so there were only about 25 congregations. My first area was a ward that had regular attendance of ~10, not including the missionaries...the ward list we used for reactivation was huge...like 1,200 members or more. The largest congregation that I attended was a branch that had ~30. I would be suprised if there were 1,000 active members in the entire mission. I know there were other missions in Brazil where the church was much stronger, but I didn't see it. I don't know how the church is doing now. Many of the wards/branches only had 1-2 priesthood holders...if they got burnt out, the branches/areas would have to be run completely by missionaries.

My observation in Brazil was that once the converting missionary left, so did the converts.

They were so desperate for leadership they even defaulted to a renegade expat that corrupted missionaries as a branch president pro temp until new missionaries arrived two weeks later.

I wonder if they ever recovered from the experience?

It is also worth noting that Brazil has about 16 percent Protestants - Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptists, Pentecostals - which far outnumbers the local Mormons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_in_Brazil

THAT is something you can't miss in Brazil...the "crente" churches are EVERYWHERE! It felt like they outnumbered us 10,000 to 1. They even had a "church of the veil" where men sat in the pews to the right and women sat in the pews to the left with their faces veiled...interesting. Everyone else was catholic, but I don't think I ever met one that attended mass.

You know, looking at that data, it really is remarkable that TSCC sees itself as a worldwide church. Peru makes the top 20, and it is a meager 1.1% of the population?

Their game is over.

Peru's 1.1% is a phony number. All LDS membership numbers are
phony.

I once attended the annual meeting of a Presbyterian
congregation. I wasn't a member of the congregation but they
let anyone who walked in the door attend. All who attended
were given a sheet containing information which included a
financial statement and membership numbers. The membership
numbers included how many had been dropped from the rolls for
not attending for a year.

If TSCC dropped anyone from membership rolls who had not
attended for a year what would their numbers be? In Chile the
national census asks which religion people follow. The number
that self-identified as LDS was less than 1/4 the number given
by the Church. Anyone who hasn't formally resigned or been
excommunicated is counted in the official membership numbers.
There are gazillions of names on the rolls that they have
completely lost contact with. They keep them on the
membership rolls until they turn 110 years of age. That means
that a substantial number of their 15-some million members are
dead. Others would be shocked to be told they were Mormons.
For them it was something they flirted with back thirty years
ago when they were 19 or 20 but after a month gave it up--a
part of their life they've totally forgotten about. But they
are counted among the "faithful."

I'm a little surprised that Tahiti only scored 6 percent of the population because I'd say that the Mos have a pretty big presence there. There are certain (very small) islands that are about 100% Mormon.

But interestingly, since the missionaries got there so early, there is also a very large RLDS presence there. The islanders went through the same schism as the saints in the Midwest.

If you are thinking of Rangiroa as the "100%" island, if you go there you will discover that tho they may all claim to be "Mormon", they all (few actually) in fact don't believe or behave as Mormons. It's just tradition for them for 150 years, and they have since wandered widely away from LDS "teachings".

I can tell you from personal experience that the numbers from Chile are wrong. I went there on my mish and we baptized like 2000 people a month while I was there. I bet less than 1% of those people are still active today, and I bet none of them has had their name removed. I think that is the story all over the place.

Most of those are really unremarkable countries. Whatever their status, total world-wide "active" members (LDS church barometer for "active": Attend at least once per month) is only 4 to 4.5 million, with only some estimated (according to cumorah.com) 2.5 million totally active (pay tithing, hold recommends) world-wide.

It's a very insignificant church, and it's not getting bigger, no matter how many baptisms they claim.

...only has 100,000 people - that's it. More people live in Provo than all of Tonga. All the other Pacific Island nations noted have similar situations.

Yeah. Long ago people were looking at the map of Mormonism in America, shown by counties. Lincoln Co. NV showed like 100% Mormonism, but then you realize that it is made up of three tiny Mormon hamlets Pioche, Panaca, and Caliente, and that the entire county is only 3,000 strong with a significant FLDS population that is also counted as "Mormons" on the map (as were Community of Christ in Lamoni, IA).

Best to look at the population of the world and then compare to how many ACTIVE Mormons there are. Think about how thinly spread 4.5 million (if it were that much, but it's not) is across the globe. Don't much matter none if all of Tonga is LDS.

Keep in mind that 15 million includes inactives. It also wouldn't surprise me if they were still including resignations in that number also.

TSCC loves to throw around those big numbers because they think it helps prove their claim about being the "true church". But in reality it's a sham just like the religion itself.

Southern Alberta, Canada has a 120 year history of Mormon settlers. There are enough Mormons around Lethbridge and Calgary that I would certainly consider them a noticeable presence.

That said, the percentage of Mormons in the population is declining in both Alberta and British Columbia. The decline is almost 1% a year in Alberta, and 2% a year in BC. Two percent per year is a very steep decline, BTW.

For full details from Canadian census, see
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,934324,934324#msg-934324

The thing is though that the church is alleging it is more than what it is.
It is saying that it is one of the fastest growing religions in the world.
It is also saying that it has far more members outside of the U.S. than in the U.S. but in my opinion the U.S. is the country in which the church is most apparent.


Canada and Brazil are within easy reach of the U.S.
Pacific islanders are led to believe that they are a historical part of the church.

Apart from that though??