Membership and congregation totals for nations with a reported LDS
presence are now available on the Church's official website and can be
found at
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics. Data is available under the country profiles on the right side of the site.
The 20 countries with the highest annual membership growth rates in 2012 are listed below. Lists for nations with the most rapid membership
growth rates are also available for
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010, and
2011. The percentage next to the country name is the annual growth rate
percentage which is followed by the country's LDS membership at year-end
2012. Countries in
bold experienced a membership increase greater than 200.
- Benin - 59.9% - 1,081
- Rwanda - 34.4% - 121
- Solomon Islands - 31.5% - 509
- Botswana - 27.1% - 2,152
- Malawi - 22.9% - 1,421
- Angola - 20.9% - 1,257
- Togo - 19.7% - 1,861
- Jersey - 16.7% - 349
- Cape Verde - 16.2% - 9,326
- Ethiopia - 15.7% - 1,678
- Sierra Leone - 15.7% - 11,664
- Tuvalu - 14.9% - 200
- Madagascar - 14.6% - 9,190
- Cote d'Ivoire - 14.5% - 18,602
- Liberia - 14.4% - 6,709
- Democratic Republic of the Congo - 13.5% - 34,547
- Namibia - 13.2% - 763
- Malaysia - 13.1% - 8,967
- Vanuatu - 12.9% - 5,491
- Cameroon - 12.4% - 12.4%
Below is a list of the top ten countries by numerical increase in
membership for the year 2012. Each country is provided with the national
increase in membership and the percentage of this increase out of total
Church membership increase. Lists are also available for
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010, and
2011. 72.6% of 2012 LDS membership increase can be attributed to the following 10 nations.
- United States - 92,183 - 27.0%
- Mexico - 44,501 - 13.0%
- Brazil - 36,441 - 10.7%
- Peru - 18,947 - 5.6%
- Philippines - 13,568 - 4.0%
- Argentina - 12,655 - 3.7%
- Ecuador - 8,230 - 2.4%
- Guatemala - 7,958 - 2.3%
- Chile - 6,883 - 2.0%
- Honduras - 6,249 - 1.8%
I will provide additional analysis of these country-by-country statistics in the coming couple days. Some interesting developments with these 2012 statistics include a significant increase in church membership for Guatemala and Ecuador that has not been experienced since the 1990s, church membership in the Central African Republic declining by 50% likely due to updating membership records, and church membership continuing to experience small gains in Norway that first began in 2009 after two decades of stagnant membership growth.
19 comments:
Thanks for posting the data.
Two newly created wards:
The Remblais Ward, Port-Bouet Cote d'Ivoire Stake was created on 21 April. There are now 7 wards and 2 branches in the stake:
Adjouffou Ward
Jean-Folly Ward
Koumassi Ward
Marcory Ward
Port-Bouet Ward
Remblais Ward
Vridi Ward
Grand-Bassam 1st Branch
Grand-Bassam 2nd Branch
The Vernon 2nd Ward, Vernon British Columbia Stake was created on 21 April. There are now 8 wards and 4 branches in the stake:
Kamloops 1st Ward
Kamloops 2nd Ward
Kelowna 2nd Ward
Kelowna 1st Ward
Penticton Ward
Salmon Arm Ward
Vernon 1st Ward
Vernon 2nd Ward
Clearwater Branch
Merritt Branch
Osoyoos Branch
Westbank Branch
The Cheyenne Wyoming East Stake was created on 21 April. There are 7 wards in the stake:
Buffalo Ridge Ward
Chimney Rock Ward
Eastridge Ward
Frontier Ward
Scottsbluff Ward
Sidney Ward
Sunrise Ward
Four are on the east side of Cheyenne. Two (including Chimney Rock) are in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The Sidney Ward is also in Nebraska.
I had thought that maybe the westernmost units of the Kearney Nebraska stake might have been involved--that stake with 17 units has the most units of stake in the Church. The Cheyenne Stake used to have 14 wards, now each half has 7.
The Córdoba México Stake was created on 21 April. There are 5 wards and 1 branch in the stake:
Córdoba Ward
Escamela Ward
Huilango Ward
Nuevo Córdoba Ward
Ojo de Agua Ward
Huatusco Branch
The Córdoba México Stake was created from the Orizaba México Stake, which now has 5 wards:
Ciudad Mendoza Ward
Jalapilla Ward
Nogales Ward
Orizaba Ward
Reforma Ward
The Haida Gwaii Branch, Terrace British Columbia District, Canada Vancouver Mission was created on 21 April. There are now 5 branches in the district:
Haida Gwaii Branch
Kitimat Branch
Prince Rupert Branch
Smithers Branch
Terrace Branch
The Thompsons Station 2nd Ward, Franklin Tennessee Stake was created on 21 April. There are now 9 wards and 1 branch in the stake:
Columbia Ward
Dickson Ward
Franklin 2nd Ward
Franklin 3rd Ward
Lawrenceburg Ward
Linden Ward
Spring Hill Ward
Thompsons Station 1st Ward
Thompsons Station 2nd Ward
Fairview Branch
Mike, weren't there 2 branches created in BC recently, as well as the Vernon 2d Ward? There have been three branches and one new ward created in Canada in the last 2 or 3 weeks, with hardly any other new units created in years in Canada before these.
Ray, the Vernon 2nd Ward and the Haida Gwaii Branch, both created on 21 April and already posted in this thread, are the only new units I am aware of created in British Columbia in the past several months.
Ray, have you counted the Cardston YSA Branch, Cardston Alberta Stake created on 14 April?
The BC ward and branch and this branch are the only Canadian units I am aware of created in the last month.
There was a Arbour Lake Ward in Alberta created in January.
Hopefully there are more that I haven't found yet. I will look for them.
Matt, most of the growth continues to be in North America, with Mexico and the United States alone accounting for close to half. With South America included close to 80% of the growth is in the Western Hemisphere, although the Philippines and Nigeria in the Eastern Hemisphere are doing extremely well.
Have you determined the amount of growth that has occurred in the non-reporting countries? From the statistical report reported in Conference and then compared to Dec. 31, 2012 CDOL figures, there appear ti be a little over 100 branches in those countries.
I have to wonder if Liberia may be getting close to getting a stake again, but they might hold off on that. It is encoraging to see it on the list though. With Botswana, Angola and Liberia each getting their own missions growth in those countries may pick up even more, and it might also pick up in Sierre Leone now that they do not have to share a mission with Liberia. I also wonder if this might lead to opening neighboring countries like Senegal and Guinea to missionary work.
I noticed you accidentally listed the percentage growth state for Camaroon twice and did not list the membership number. It is 1,277 with 6 branches, although the article says 2 branchs and 200 members. How often do they update the summaries of church membership for the countries involved?
I have to wonder if Camerron, Rwanda/Burundi and Ethipopia will not get missions soon. Another place that could get a mission is Malawi with high growth, 14 million people and the Zambia Mission still covering a large area, I could see that mission being split.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has almost twice as many members as the next highest membership in the fastest grwoing countries.
I would also not be surprised to see a second stake in Sierre Leone.
As far as I can tell Burundi is not reported, at least not as such. Is there not at least one branch there?
Alos, does the church not have a clear presence in Gabon, which also seems to not have been reported.
Since we are talking about new units. A new stake was created today 4/28/13. The Williams Field Stake, In Gilbert Arizona. The Higley stake and the San Tan Stake split off to form the Williams Field Stake. The Higley Stake consists of 7 wards:
Ashley Heights Ward
Bella Vista Ward
Cooley Station Ward
Copper Ranch Ward
Gateway Gardens Ward
Higley Ward
Summerfield Ward
The New Williams Field Stake consists of 6 wards:
Chaparral Ward
Fairview Ward
Gateway Ward
Pecos Park Ward
Maplewood Ward (from San Tan Stake)
Stratland Ward (from San Tan Stake)
If these areas keep on developing new homes as they are currently doing we will eventually see more wards and stakes in the near future.
John Pack Lambert, The CDOL report shows Burundi with 2 branches.
You can read about the establishment of the Church in Burundi at http://grammyandpapas.blogspot.com/2010/09/going-to-burundi-dot-is-filled.html
The current mission president in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Brent Jamison), was serving in the DRC as a member of the mission presidency in 2010 when he, his wife, another senior couple, and 8 elders were sent to open Burundi. It is fascinating story.
They add to the story in a February 2013 entry: http://grammyandpapas.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html
when one of their first baptisms in Burundi began serving in the Kinshasa mission.
Mike, I heard a sister in Richmond Ward in Vancouver today talk about 2 new branches in the Terrace District formed at a recent District conference. One was Haida Gwaii, as you reported, and the other was the reopening of Kitimat Branch which had been active in prior years. That accounts for the 2 new BC branches.
Thanks, Ray. The Kitimat Branch shows up as being active since 1980.
I wonder if this might be the opposite of some branches in Arizona. In Arizona, there are branches that cease to operate in the summer, but attract up to 800 each week in the winter because of the snow birds.
I wonder if it is possible that the Terrace area has people that spend the summer there and flee for the winter and thus the nearby Kitimat Branch shuts down each winter and opens up again each summer, without officially closing the branch.
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