I will be posting tables that display the percentage of Latter-day Saints by country with year-end 2021 membership data during the coming week. See below for the table for Asia. You can click on the table to make it larger. Membership is estimated for countries with an asterisk.
12 comments:
Thanks for keeping us regularly updated on the church growth for good and bad in terms of trends. Do you think any part of Asia will eventually see significant membership growth other than the Philippines? Speaking of the Philippines, is the church still growing in that country or has it slowed down? I haven't seen any new stakes created in the Philippines since last year or the year before.
-Austin
Matt, great stuff as always. I appreciate your continued efforts to contextualize Church growth matters for all of us here. I wanted to comment now to share some developments which are slightly related to the growth of the Church. First, because I am a ministering secretary in the Elders' Quorum, I apparently have access to a letter from the First Presidency confirming that the Hong Kong China Temple will be dedicated in 3 sessions on June 19 (the same day as the dedication for the Praia Cape Verde Temple) and that Elder Gerrit W. Gong will officiate at that dedication. while this would seem to debunk my previously-offered theory that only the 9 most senior apostles of the Church would officiate at rededications, I imagine Elder Gong was assigned the task because of his Asian ancestry, which would likely make it easier for him to qualify to get into Hong Kong than it might be for any of the other apostles, including the 9 most senior ones. So I think that is a one-time exception to the general rule that senior apostles will officiate at temple rededications. Additionally, the Church has had three major updates in the last couple of weeks which are related to temples reopening. But on June 2, the Church shared the latest major temple reopening update:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022-06-02/14-more-temples-having-moved-to-normal-operations-in-north-america-europe-africa-and-australia-256245
The temple reopening status tracker, which reflected two more temples beginning transitions to phase 4 was updated again just 6 days after the report from June 2:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022-06-08/temple-reopening-status-tracker-worldwide-199279
The day after the June 2 announcement, the First Presidency announced that, while scheduling formal appointments for temple worship will still be the preferred method, and while those patrons who schedule will be prioritized, patrons who do not schedule temple work in advance will be accommodated as capacity and scheduling allows:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/adjustment-temple-scheduling
Then today, in the course of a few hours this afternoon and evening, the Church's official list of temples reflected new official names for the Greater Guatemala City Guatemala Temple (which will now be known as the Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple) and the Rexburg Idaho North Temple (which will now be known as the Teton River Idaho Temple:
These names are shown among the list of the other temples in the "Announced" section. Since there has previously been confirmation of the site location and a release of an exterior rendering for the Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple, that temple could be one of the next to have a groundbreaking. By contrast, although a presumed site is being cleared, we don't have a definitive announcement from the Church to officially confirm that as the spot. And a rendering has not yet been released for the Teton River Idaho Temple either, so it may take the Church longer to get to a groundbreaking for that temple.
Anyways, just wanted to pass these updates along for the benefit of anyone who reads them. Thanks again for the ongoing updates, Matt, and my thanks once again to you all.
A very compelling list! That one person in the Paracel Islands makes a real difference in percentage.
Also, perhaps good to acknowledge that most of Russia is contained within Asia, even though it is not reflected here. I would guestimate that there a couple thousand members in Siberia, in places like Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, and a few other cities. I cannot recall if Omsk is Siberian or not, but there may be 10 to 12 on the Asian side, right? It would be interesting to account for that part of Asia.
It is interesting to see the numbers in the highly Muslim countries. UAE will get a temple sooner than Russia or China, I would wager.
Adding to the stone rolling prophecy, the numbers of some places have been stagnant or retrogressive, but overall the numbers of the Church of Jesus Christ are dynamic. A "stone" with close to 300 active temples is no small thing. Even if there were only one million active members, I think that the allegory or metaphor still works.
As Rodney Stark noted, I think around 1996, that the original Christian Church took 400 years to reach the numbers that the Restored Church 200 years to do. And the Church has definitely grown in the quarter of a century since then.
Much of the California shrinkage has moved to Utah and other places. Many have fallen away for good, but many members have moved to new venues. And amazingly, California keeps adding temples!
Sorry for people losing their home wards. I lost the first stake I attended in California, the Highland Stake. Suburb of San Bernardino. That was about 17 years ago.
How do you come up with the estimates of membership?
Yes, this is fascinating information, but I'm wondering how you get all this news James. Do you have a special connection with the press? A close relationship with a general authority? Or is it a unique conduit to sacred revelation?
It appears there are now enough people commenting as Unknown that, although I am not going to create a profile on here, I will start signing mine as "Felix". I am the unknown who comments from time to time on developments related to India and Pakistan. I also was the one who upset some folks on here when I asserted that it is acceptable to use the phrase "and other protestant churches" in the context of discussing surveys that lump us in with the protestant denominations, in spite of the fact that our history, doctrine, and claim to authority are not protestant, but restorationist. Hopefully that context will be enough to help folks get a sense for which commenter I am (and am not).
--Felix
Kimberley, I have had a lifelong love of Church history. In this age of information where such updates can be found relatively easily, I have a number of Church sites I follow and check in on multiple times per day. Due to lifelong health challenges, and some aditional challenges with my health which have cropped up in the last 5.5 years, I have been homebound and unable to work. So I have time and access to resources (including a network of Church member contacts from various major areas of the world) to track, monitor, and pass along such updates. I have no connection whatsoever to any general authority or general officer of the Church, not do I claim any special prerogative to revelation about these developments, merely a thirst for knowledge, the knack of knowing where to look, and having time to find, track, and pass these updates along. Hope that answers your question.
Kimberley, I tried to post a response to you before, but for whatever the reason, it was not approved. For the record, I have no connections to the press, nor a direct connection of any kind to any general authorities. And it is not my prerogative nor authority to claim "a unique conduit to sacred revelation."
What I have had for the better part of the last 1.5 decades is the time and capacity to regularly check several sites featuring information about the Church several times daily, and the ability to retain and pass along such updates here and on my own blog.
As a result, there are very few updates from the Church about which I'm not made aware within minutes of their being reported. And there have been moments where I've received a distinct prompting to check one of those sites.
In early January 2018, I felt prompted to do a late-night check of the Newsroom, and though I didn't understand why, I did so. In that one case, I discovered the late night report on President Monson's death. So in that one case, I was led to that.
But for the most part, it's just been a question of regular checks of several Church websites several times a day. There's not a lot that goes on in the Church about which I'm not aware within minutes of such reports being published. So I can claim attention to detail, but not special access to spiritual revelation. Hope that helps.
I was just joking. This is really useful information.
Austin,
The Church does well in Christian countries in which the Philippines is one of a few in Asia, but not the only one. East Timor is also a Christian dominated country but has no official church presence. The chart shows 15 members which are likely members from outside the country that are living there for whatever reason.
That being said, the church has had growth spurts on occasion in non-Christian countries. It depends on the receptiveness of the people and government. Various events can trigger this. Proselyting is prohibited in most all Muslim-majority nations as well as other nations like China. Also when economies begin to flourish, people tend to become less receptive (part of the pride cycle). I'm not a crystal ball, but I would assume South and Southeast Asia will be the likely areas for growth of the church in Asia in the near future.
One lonely member in the Paracel Islands
Are there members of the Church in N. Korea? Interesting. I wonder how did they get there.
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