Analysis on Top 10 Countries without a Temple

Several reasons why there are not temples yet in these 10 nations are provided below

• Church has not been established long in the nation.
• High inactivity/lack of full tithe payers (which one must be to have a temple recommend)
• Dispersed membership
• Government approval and land allocation

Nicaragua provides a good example of a nation which exhibits some of these points. Membership is relatively young; seven out of the past eight stakes have been organized in the past seven years. High inactivity is illustrated by the high member to unit ratio of 615 members per unit. Of course this activity indicator has limitations such as countries which have many branches can lower this ratio even though inactivity can be quite high. Nevertheless, a ratio of over 550 members per unit signifies high inactivity even in a nation predominantly covered by wards and stakes.

The Church in Europe tends to have difficulties finding land for temples. People who have been in Europe have indicated to me that this is one of the reasons why Itay and France do not have temples yet. However, President Hinckley told a group of saints in 2004 in France that a temple will someday be built in that land.

Most the information I use in these blog postings are taken from the Church Alamanac by the Deseret Morning News, lds.org, mormon.org, mission.net, personal contacts, and ldschurchtemples.com. Most of the maps I use are from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection from the University of Texas.