Posted by:
Ex-CultMember
(
)
Date: January 02, 2014 09:39PM
I'm so excited! It looks like the Cumorah website has been updated thru 2012 for LDS growth stats.
http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=countriesI haven't looked at the website for a while because it had only been updated thru 2008-09 I think.
What's great about this website is, besides providing the official membership numbers along with historical graphs showing the growth, it also does this with the congregations, or units(branches/wards/stakes/districts).
While the church's membership totals are pretty meaningless, (since we all know they are including everyone and their dog that's been on record regardless of their activity level), I believe the statistics regarding their congregational growth is a fairly accurate representation of their REAL growth.
As we all have predicted Europe and Asia are CLEARLY in decline. Most of the countries in these continents are either LOSING branches, wards and stakes or at best FLATLINING.
For example if you look at France,
http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=77&cmdfind=SearchThey report an INCREASE in membership of 565 from 2011 to 2012 but they actually DECREASED in the total number of congregations in the same time period. The number of wards remained at 60 but the number of branches dropped by one from 49 to 48.
Things are even worse in Asia. South Korea lost EIGHT wards, dropping from 91 to 83 (with no change in # of branches at 45). Its even worse if you look back 10 to 15 years. South Korea apparently hit its peak in Mormon growth in 1999 when they had 105 wards and 70 branches. That's a 21% DECREASE in the number of wards and 35% DECREASE in the number of branches over the last 13 years. NOT LOOKING SO GOOD. Of course they report a 20% INCREASE in membership over that same amount of time from 71,166 to 85,628.
I was even surprised by "successful" baptizing Latin America. While they report a 3.5% increase in membership in Mexico from 1,273,199 to 1,317,700 the number of wards DECREASED from 1,543 to 1,535 and the number of branches DECREASED from 457 to 450.
Even the heavyweight of LDS international growth, Brazil, reported a decline in congregations!
http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=30&cmdfind=SearchLooking at the historical graphs it looks like the year 2000, ironically, was the turning point in Mormon expansion. Europe, Asia and Latin America all show a sharp change in the growth rate of units after this year, either beginning a decline or a flat-lining.
I haven't looked at all the countries yet, but the only ones with an ACTUAL growth rate in congregations is Africa, however Africa is fairly new to the scene so growth is certainly expected (and you know its a $$$ loss). Give them a few years like Asia and South America and we'll probably see growth plateau there as well, especially once the Africans start getting access to the internet and learning about the racist history of the church.
The United States showed growth but only a very modest increase from 13,628 units to 13,742 units, or an annual growth rate of 0.8%, which is the same as the nation's overall population growth. Even Canada appears to be slipping.
As I always knew, the USA, or more specifically, the Mormon heartland of UTAH, is the only REAL source of growth at this point for Mormonism, and that is mostly from the born and bred.