The Church has published regional figures for membership and the total number of congregations by world region for 2025. The tables below summarize these data. Table 1 presents membership and congregation totals for 2024 and 2025 by world region. Table 2 provides percentage growth rates for membership and congregations in 2025, as well as the average number of members per congregation and the change in this metric from 2024 to 2025.
Table 1
| Region | 2024 Mem | 2025 Mem | 2024 Cong | 2025 Cong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 9,733,719 | 9,807,340 | 18,426 | 18,501 |
| South America | 4,392,463 | 4,517,233 | 5,599 | 5,547 |
| Europe | 513,534 | 528,704 | 1,290 | 1,280 |
| Asia | 1,316,373 | 1,343,071 | 2,145 | 2,192 |
| Oceania | 607,302 | 629,697 | 1,290 | 1,306 |
| Africa | 933,511 | 1,046,270 | 2,927 | 3,220 |
Table 2
| Region | Mem % | Cong % | M/C 2024 | M/C 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | +0.76% | +0.41% | 528 | 530 | +2 |
| South America | +2.84% | -0.93% | 785 | 814 | +29 |
| Europe | +2.95% | -0.78% | 398 | 413 | +15 |
| Asia | +2.03% | +2.19% | 614 | 613 | -1 |
| Oceania | +3.69% | +1.24% | 471 | 482 | +11 |
| Africa | +12.08% | +10.01% | 319 | 325 | +6 |
The Church has not yet published country-by-country data for 2025. However, data for individual U.S. states and the District of Columbia have been updated and are available through the state and district profiles on this page. The Church recently transitioned its facts and statistics page from the Newsroom website to ChurchofJesusChrist.org, and some data have not yet been fully integrated into the new platform. I will provide analysis of these numbers once the country-specific data are released.
Congregational growth outpacing membership growth in Asia is astounding. That, along with the drop in members per unit, is very encouraging. I'm assuming this is thanks to the Philippines, but I will be interested to see what the country-by-country statistics look like in the future. 10% congregational growth in Africa is also incredible. Has that ever happened before? Thanks for the post as always, Matt.
ReplyDeleteIt should also be noted that South America's and Europe's declining congregation numbers are largely due to those areas still playing "catch up" with recent changes where more established wards and stakes in these areas were "too small" to meet the new globalized standards for ward and stake size. I predict this decline will not only stabilize, but will actually reverse in the near future to see congregational growth in these areas in coming years.
ReplyDeleteFor those following the weekly New Mission Leadership bios posts by the Church News staff, after today's post of the most recent 11 Bios. According to my research only 4 New Mission Presidents bios remaining to post for the 2026-2029 batch.
ReplyDelete1) Texas Dallas West Mission - 2023-2026 Pres. Jonathan Ord
2026-2029 ?? Unknown
2) Washington Tacoma Mission - 2020-2023 Pres. Christopher S. Metts
2023-2023 Pres. Kurt Brown (reassigned)
2023-2026 ?? Unknown
2026-2029 ?? Unknown
3) Brazil Maceio Mission - 2023-2026 Pres. Nathan Hanks
2026-2029 Pres. Shane J Farnsworth (Bio not posted yet)
Possibly the same Shane J Farnsworth posted as new Stake President in 2018.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2018/3/22/23221667/new-stake-presidents-9/
4) Russia Novosibirsk Mission 2020-2023 Pres. Alexey V. Samaykin
2023-2026 ?? Unknown
2026-2029 ?? Unknown
Here's the fill-ins for your unknowns.
Delete1. Texas Dallas West
2023-2026: Jonathan E. Ord
This mission was not listed as getting a new President, but Pres. Ord is listed as being released this July.
2. Washington Tacoma
2023-2024: Kurt Brown
2024-2027?: Frank A. Nolden
4. Russia Novobirisk
2020-2022: Alexey V. Samaykin
2022-2025: Roman A. Nabatnikov
2025-2028?: Evgeniy A. Markelov
Updated country-by-country data is available if you use the newsroom verisions of other countries/languages for example https://noticias-br.aigrejadejesuscristo.org/fatos-e-estatisticas/pa%c3%ads/nig%C3%A9ria
ReplyDeleteCorrect, Mario. I am writing up the analysis right now. Truly an unprecedented year for many different reasons. Extremely interesting. Never seen anything like it with membership statistics in the history of the Church.
DeleteMembers per congregation is interesting when thinking of the time series of these areas. Africa has a very low relative members per congregation ratio because it doesn't have decades of stale membership records accumulating without anywhere for them to go.
ReplyDeleteMatt, have you looked at changes in the members per congregation over time by region? I know you said at one point that members per congregation in Utah were fairly sticky/stable, but Utah seems a bit of an outlier because (1) it has reached a "mature" state in growth trajectories and (2) you can track down and clean up records in Utah at a much better rate there than likely anywhere else, since geographical boundaries and familial connections help with the recordkeeping process.
It would be interesting to chart areas/countries standardizing in Year 0 as when the area's first stake was established or something like that, and then tracking how many members per congregation it reported over time. I think the most logical prediction for Africa is that 20 years from now, we'll see ~600-700 members per congregation much like Latin America because of very similar issues with record-keeping.
The Church has been publishing membership data by continent since year ending 2017. The sum of the numbers for the six continents has always matched the reported world number through year ending 2021. However, for the next four years beginning year ending 2022, the sum of the six continent numbers is 13000 to 15000 smaller than the reported world total. Just curious as to where those members are located.
ReplyDeleteFor the last four reporting years, the sum of the membership numbers for the six continents has been between 13 and 15 thousand smaller than the reported world total. From 2017 to 2021, the sums matched the total exactly. Curious as to where they belong.
ReplyDelete