The Church in Italy

Although membership growth has been only around 2% a year for the past five years in Italy, there have been three new stakes organized since 2005. Now Italian members are organized into six stakes and seven districts. Along with France, Italy is in need of a temple but land has been difficult to find as well as obtaining government permission. Furthermore, most of the members in Italy live in the north which is fairly close to the Bern Switzerland Temple. It would be most likely that a temple would be built here (because there are four stakes) but Rome is another possibility. Districts in the south would be closer to a temple in Rome. Three of the seven districts are on Sicily and Sardinia the rest are in Calabria, Florence, Naples, and Rimini. It is quite likely that the districts in Florence and Naples will mature into stakes within the next five years. The yellow squares are wards and the green squares are branches.