As part of work I have completed for The Cumorah Foundation (cumorah.com), I have completed the most comprehensive
country-by-country database to provide data on membership,
congregations, stakes, districts, estimated member activity rates, and the
percentage of the national population residing in locations with
LDS congregations. Users can download the file as an Excel spreadsheet
to explore the data. We hope that this resources will fuel additional
research and interest in the study of missiology and LDS Church growth. Data in the database goes back to 1930. Enjoy!
Click here to view and download the database.
16 comments:
Jan 4
Anchorage Alaska Chugach Stake
Alpenglow Ward renamed Eagle River Valley Ward
Mount Baldy Ward created
Stake now contains 8 wards, 4 branches
Also, temple presidents called to Cordoba, Payson, and Trujillo.
This must mean the dedication date announcement for Trujillo are not too far away.
Also, as a side note, looking on LDS Maps for the stake (when the changes happen), it will appear that there were 2 new wards created, instead of 1. This is because one of the areas is now an enclave of a ward it has no boundaries with. This was confusing and curious (I have my hopeful theories), but there is a ward (different stake) that cuts this ward in half geographically.
Thanks for the stats. These are fun. I am very interested to know how you compiled the reach % and how you defined it. Also the active %. Is that attending Sacrament once per qtr or attending their Priesthood or RS meeting once per qtr? Do you know when you will have 2014 stats? Thanks again for the fun info.
Surprising to see declining overall membership in the UK in 2013, and the weakest membership growth in the US in 25 years.
Matt, the active membership is very difficult to get I would think as in my ward we get 140 to sacrament meeting but if you went through the ward list you would pick out 160 that were considered active with most activity indicators considered. so how did you come to this. Also 28% activity rate for Australia seems a little low to me. Most wards and stakes I know are about 33-38%?
Any word on south sudan and progress there with missionary work?
Matt,
I don't know if I love you are hate you. I have spent the last several weeks purchasing used Church Almanacs online and entering data into a spreadsheet. My spreadsheet reaches back to 1989. I ordered the 1989 and 1985 almanacs today. Nobody is currently selling 1987.
I am using the data to follow up on my research published in the Vol. 7, No. 2 of Square Two. The article is titled, "Institutions and LDS Church Growth." http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleWilsonInstitutionalGrowth.html
New Ward and Branch Creations
Updates in CDOL for the last four weeks
14 December 2014
Bwari 2nd Ward, Abuja Nigeria Stake (11 wards, 3 branches)
Cedar Creek Ward, Lenexa Kansas Stake (9 wards)
Chamanculo Branch, Maputo Mozambique District (7 branches)
Jamiltepec Branch, Pinotepa Mexico District (5 branches)
Kanvilli Branch, Ghana Kumasi Mission (13 branches)
Kawerau Branch, Tauranga New Zealand Stake (4 wards, 4 branches)
Rexburg Married Student 35th Ward, Rexburg Idaho Married Student 2nd Stake (10 wards)
Tema 4th Branch, Tema Ghana Stake (7 wards, 2 branches)
21 December 2014
Adjorman Branch, Accra Ghana Christiansborg Stake (7 wards, 3 branches)
Foremaster Ridge Ward, St. George Utah Morningside Stake (10 wards)
Sangonaa Branch, Accra Ghana Christiansborg Stake (7 wards, 3 branches)
Tali Ward, Taichung Taiwan Stake (7 wards, 2 branches)
Tungkong Mangga Ward, San Jose del Monte Philippines Stake (7 wards)
28 December 2014
Alianza Real Branch, Monterrey Mexico Anahuac Stake (6 wards, 3 branches)
Coventry Park Ward, Layton Utah Legacy Stake (9 wards)
Iona 12th Ward, Iona Idaho South Stake (9 wards)
Spanish Highlands 2nd Ward, Spanish Fork Utah Maple Mountain Stake (10 wards)
Wild Horse Springs Ward, Layton Utah Legacy Stake (9 wards)
4 January 2015
Boca Rio Branch (Portuguese), Boynton Beach Florida Stake (5 wards, 1 branch)
Butterfield Canyon 8th Ward, Herriman Utah West Stake (12 wards, 1 branch)
Casper 7th Ward, Casper Wyoming Stake (12 wards, 2 branches)
Casper 9th Ward, Casper Wyoming Stake (12 wards, 2 branches)
Coal Creek 3rd Ward, Enoch Utah West Stake (9 wards, 1 branch)
Midvale YSA 2nd Ward, Murray Utah YSA Stake (8 wards)
Mount Baldy Ward, Anchorage Alaska Chugach Stake (8 wards, 4 branches)
Now that the year is over, do we have an unofficial official # for the number of wards, branches (including sensitive) for the whole church for 2014? I have ballpark numbers but it would be nice to have a more reasonable number before April.
Active membership is not the same as average attendance. But, unfortunately, the terms get mixed up somewhat.
As an example, if 1/3 of the membership attends almost all the time and 1/3 attends about half the time and 1/3 never, then average attendance is about 50%, while active membership is 2/3.
We went quarter after quarter reporting about 90% active (attending at least once in the quarter) and about 67% average attendance in my ward.
Mike, this is what I was asking, in light of the average attendance being the number that is collected on the quarterly reports how then does Matt get the activity rates? or are these estimates?
An interesting little activity to do in a ward is go through the ward list, mark activity in 4 separate areas; members that come most of the time at least three times a month, members that attend once a month usually or so, those who have attended between less than once a month but no more than 4-8 times in the year and then those who have attended 1-3 times in the last year. The numbers were surprising and as you have the low hanging fruit identified start working on them. Last time i did this we had 190 members who had attended church in the last year but only 130 average attendance. And thats what we did we identified the other 60 and started to work out what we needed to do and who we needed to reach out to and how.
Dec. and 2014 growth in Church Units:
(Subject to revision as additional units created in Dec. are reported)
Dec.+ 31 w&br; +26 w + 5 br
US + 10; + 11 -1 br
Outside US + 26; + 15 w + 6 br
2014 + 364; + 414 w - 50 br
US + 155; + 166 w - 11 br + 25 st - 1 d + 3 temples
Outside US + 209; + 248 w - 39 br + 38 st - 8 d + 1 mission (104 br became w as d became st)
US + 155 w & br
Africa + 157
Asia + 36
Pacific + 18
Europe + 3
N Amer + 185
S Amer - 35
Ghana + 39
Nigeria + 37
Cote D'Ivoire + 22
Braz + 23
Mex + 18
My home ward in Indiana over Xmas had a long term less-active brother pass away. He was a long time professor at Indiana University. Similar to all religions, and to me interesting most often in comparison to Judaism, we have those who are sympathetic to our faiths being a member of it "ethnically", without active participation. But he never said a word against Mormonism, to my or others'knowledge. But there is something different about a Christian proseletyzing faith in comparison with other faiths.
The Great Commission has been a difference the last 2,000 years.
Some more late arrivals in CDOL for December unit creations, in Africa and Mexico:
7 Dec 2014
Kambuzuma Branch, Harare Zimbabwe Marimba Park Stake (6 wards, 1 branch)
14 Dec 2014
Aboso Branch, Winneba Ghana Stake (5 wards, 4 branches)
Kodjoviakope Branch, Lome Togo Stake (8 wards, 6 branches)
21 Dec 2014
Atimatim Branch, Kumasi Ghana Bantama Stake (10 wards, 3 branches)
Grijalva Ward, Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico Grijalva Stake (8 wards)
Also some more for this past Sunday:
4 Jan 2015
Araruama Branch, Macae Brazil Stake (5 wards, 2 branches)
Pioneer 8th Ward, Herriman Utah West Stake (13 wards, 1 branch)
Seke Branch, Harare Zimbabwe South Stake (5 wards, 3 branches)
The full list of mission president assignments can be found here:
http://www.deseretnews.com/lds/mission-presidents/2015
New missions:
Trinidad Port of Spain Mission
Costa Rica San Jose West
Portugal Porto
Washington Yakama
California Modesto
Bolivia La Paz El Alto
Peru Trujillo South
Argentina Buenos Aires East
Argentina Santa Fe
Utah Logan
Utah Orem
Mission Consolidations:
Utah Salt Lake City Central
There are two more units created in 2014 but reported in January that will bring the total of net new wards and branches for 2014 to 366. One was in Micronesia and one in Nigeria, which raises the total increase for Nigeria for 2014 to 38. Ghana had an increase of 39 for 2014.
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