Thursday, May 30, 2013

Updated Missionary Numbers

In an article in the Deseret News, the Church reported 68,700 full-time missionaries serving as of May 29th, 2013.  Currently 22,500 members have received their mission calls but have not yet entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) and an additional 6,200 members are in the process of completing their missionary applications.  Church officials project that the number of full-time missionaries will reach 85,000 this fall; a 47% increase from the approximately 58,000 missionaries serving in October 2012.

For more information about the recent increase in the full-time missionary force for the LDS Church, please refer to the following resources:

8 comments:

  1. I've been trying to figure out for a while now why the number of people in the interview process is so low. What I came to realize is that only North American missionaries count in this column because the online application system is not established anywhere else in the world. There is no way for Church leadership to count those working on paper applications, hence the small number. In reality, it's probably closer to 8,000-9,000.

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  2. We are online now here in Denmark.

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  3. Looks like you're ahead of Germany then. I'm currently filling out my papers on actual paper and from what my bishop says there's no change planned on that for another few years at least. But anyways, South America, South Asia and Africa probably represent the biggest number of those prospective missionaries, especially since assigning calls from there takes much longer than from elsewhere. I've read a report from a missionary from Madagascar lately and it's usual for them to start filling out the papers one full year before the availability date, simply because even mailing the paperwork and receiving the call letter may take four or five months in some cases.

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  4. I note the Church News article on the 20th anniversary of the Church in Mongolia: [url]http://www.lds.org/church/news/members-celebrate-20-years-of-church-in-mongolia?lang=eng#1850353192[/url]

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  5. Do you know in how many countries the LDS church has missionaries? Thanks for your help.

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  6. @Brittney: I count at least 134 sovereign countries that currently have LDS proselytizing missionaries, but possibly up to 11 additional countries. I also count about 23 territories, and possibly 10 or so more, that have proselytizing missionaries. These numbers rise when considering non-proselytizing missionaries.

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  7. @Brittney: Here is a list that was compiled in chronological order of when missionary work began:
    http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2012/05/countries-of-world-and-year-opened-to.html
    Plus after the list was compiled, missionaries arrived in Rwanda:
    http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/search/label/Country%20Opened%20For%20Missionary%20Work

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  8. Does any one have any stats about the number of time people have to have interactions with the church or something to that effect before joining the church?

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