Wednesday, August 17, 2011

LDS Membership by Mexican State: 2010 Mexican Census

The Instituto Nacional de Información Estadística y Geográfica has recently published 2010 census results on religious affiliation in Mexico at http://www.inegi.org.mx/.  The census counted 314,932 self-identified Latter-day Saints in Mexico compared to 205,229 Latter-day Saints in 2000, a 53.5% increase over the decade whereas officially reported LDS membership statistics for Mexico reported 1,234,545 members in 2010 and 884,071 members in 2000, a 39.6% increase during the same time period.  Despite this increase in the number of members identifying as Latter-day Saints in the census, nearly 69% of the increase in membership between 2000 and 2010 reported by the LDS Church was unaccounted for in the 2010 census.  The percentage of members reported by the LDS Church who self identified on the 2000 and 2010 Mexican censuses slightly increased from 23.2% to 25.5%.

Below is a list of Mexican states ranked by the number of self-identified Latter-day Saints on the 2010 Mexican census.
  1. México - 44,015
  2. Distrito Federal - 28,440
  3. Veracruz - 24,063
  4. Puebla - 18,722
  5. Chihuahua - 16,493
  6. Nuevo León - 15,579
  7. Tamaulipas - 13,235
  8. Baja California - 12,712
  9. Hidalgo - 11,828
  10. Coahuila de Zaragoza - 11,698
  11. Sonora - 11,252
  12. Yucatán - 10,547
  13. Oaxaca - 10,222 
  14. Jalisco - 9,158
  15. Sinaloa - 8,672
  16. Chiapas - 8,501
  17. Morelos - 7,712
  18. Quintana Roo - 6,517
  19. Guanajuato - 5,588
  20. Guerrero - 5,584
  21. Tabasco - 4,691
  22. Durango - 4,314
  23. Michoacán - 4,192
  24. San Luis Potosí - 3,634
  25. Querétaro - 3,300
  26. Campeche - 3,133
  27. Aguascalientes - 2,265
  28. Baja California Sur - 2,006
  29. Tlaxala - 1,991
  30. Nayarit - 1,843
  31. Zacatecas - 1,632
  32. Colima - 1,393
The percentage of self-identified Latter-day Saints by state varied significantly on the 2010 census, with Yucatán (one member per 185 inhabitants) possessing the highest percentage of members whereas Michoacán (one member per 1,038) possessing the lowest.  Overall there was one Latter-day Saint per 357 inhabitants in Mexico as a whole according to the 2010 Mexican census.  One in 91 Mexicans is nominally affiliated with the LDS Church. 

Lastly, the map below provides the ratio of LDS members to the general population by Mexican state. Red indicates one member per 249 or fewer inhabitants, yellow indicates one member per 250-499 inhabitants, green indicates one member per 500-749 inhabitants, and blue indicates one member per 750 or more inhabitants.


View Percent LDS by Mexican State in a larger map
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4 comments:

  1. Matthew CrandallAugust 17, 2011 at 12:17 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Brandon PleweAugust 20, 2011 at 6:20 PM

    The big issue with this (and has been for 50 years) is who decides exactly who gets dropped and by what standard? My experience as an EQP in an inner city branch was that most of the people on the "really really inactive" list wouldn't talk to us, so we couldn't officially determine their willingness to stay on the list. Also, we were instructed *not* to suggest or encourage people to request their name being removed. Many felt they were no longer mormons, but didn't want to bother helping us clean up our records, they just wanted us to leave them alone.

    It's interesting to see how other churches handle this. JW's don't report baptized members, only ones who submit their witnessing reports. SDA's have some kind of timeout policy in which people who haven't been active for a certain period of time are automatically removed (or deactivated somehow and no longer included in totals).

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  3. Brandon PleweAugust 20, 2011 at 6:26 PM

    It would be very interesting for the Church to do a membership census, contacting everyone on the list and asking people what they felt their status was. However, it won't happen because writing people off violates the whole "lost sheep" principle.

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  4. Eduardo SernaAugust 21, 2011 at 12:58 PM

    Hi Matt,
    I found a mistake when you compared the number of self-identified Latter Day Saints in México, because the 2000 Census count only person 5 ages or older, but the number in the 2010 Census Count all ages, then the correct comparison numbers are this:
    2000 205,229 self identified LDS
    2010 289,064 self identified LDS
    This is an increase of 83,853 members net 40.8% in 10 years.
    Then the diference of 25,868 is in the rang from 0-4 years.

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