Discontinued Stakes

I don't want to just focus on where the Church is growing, but also where growth is stagnant or membership is decreasing. One of the reasons I stress the increase of stakes and congregations as being so important is because they indicate not just membership increasing, but members being active in their faith. Increases of stakes and congregations are one of the most reliable statistics that reflect actual Church activity.

At the same time, a decrease of stakes or congregations indicates that there is not just slow growth, but inactivity. Oftentimes, however, a congregation or a stake is discontinued/dissolved when many of the active members move away.

Below is a list of each year since 1990 and the number of stakes dissolved in each country/state.

1990 (Uruguay - 1)

1991 (New York - 1, Japan - 1)

1992 (California - 1, Germany - 1, Philippines - 1)

1993 (California - 2, Japan - 1, Philippines - 2)

1994 (Germany - 1)

1995 (Philippines - 1)

1996 (California - 2)

1997 (no stakes discontinued)

1998 (Colombia - 1, Peru - 2)

1999 (Ecuador - 1, Peru - 1)

2000 (California - 1, Brazil - 1, Chile - 1, Colombia - 1, Peru - 1)

2001 (Bolivia - 1, Brazil - 5, Chile - 3, Japan - 1)

2002 (Chile - 25, Ecuador - 1)

2003 (Utah - 1, Chile - 12, Ecuador - 1, Japan - 1, Peru - 1, Philippines - 3)

2004 (Utah - 3, Philippines - 2)

2005 (California - 2, Chile - 1, Mexico - 2, Nigeria - 1, Philippines - 1)

2006 (Arizona - 1, Hong Kong - 1, Japan - 1, Washington - 1)

2007 (California - 3, Liberia - 1, Louisiana - 1)

There are a couple trends that follow discontinued stakes. First, the vast majority of them are outside of the United States. Of the 16 stakes listed above within the United States, 10 of them were in California. When stakes are discontinued in the United States, it is mainly because of members moving away.

Second, 42 of the 98 dissolved stakes in the past 17 years were in Chile. According to the Church Almanac, stakes and wards were created in Chile during the mid-1990s at an accelerated rate in order to catch up with growth in membership. This would allow smaller wards and stakes to provide more opportunities for new members to hold callings. In the end, high inactivity resulted and the active members were so few that 100s of wards and branches were combined in an effort to strengthen active members and leadership. Now there are 74 stakes in Chile.

Third, most of the places discontinued stakes were in experienced rapid Church growth at one time. When converts come into the Church in large quantities in an area not able to support them well, high inactivity is likely to develop over time. If many active members move way from a stake such as this, the stake is more susceptible to dissolution.

Lastly, there are instances where stakes get re-instated. Examples of this were in Arizona and in Uruguay. Half of one of the stakes in Mexico that was dissolved in 2005 was reinstated under a different name and the other half was made into a new stake (San Cristobal de Las Casas). This process can get pretty creative and interesting.