The completion of a comprehensive historical database of state-by-state Church statistics for the United States is another significant milestone for The Cumorah Foundation. The database includes annual membership totals, congregations (including ward and branch breakdowns when available), stakes, districts, and missions for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Historical membership data are available from 1987–2025, with statistics for congregations, stakes, districts, and missions likewise spanning nearly four decades.
Data were compiled from the retired Deseret News Church Almanac series and the Church’s official Newsroom site where annual state-by-state statistics have been published. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive publicly available compilation of historical Church statistics for the United States ever assembled. The database also includes historical statistics for stakes, districts, and missions that are difficult to locate in a single source and, in many cases, are no longer readily available elsewhere.
State-by-state statistics were published by the Church every other year from 1987 through 1999 and annually thereafter through 2025, with the exception of 2020 when no state-by-state statistics were released due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Empty cells in the database indicate data that were not published or are otherwise unavailable for specific years and statistical categories. Most missing data consist of ward and branch breakdowns for selected years when the Church reported only total congregations. To provide a more complete historical record, ward and branch totals for 2012–2017 were reconstructed by tracking unit creations, consolidations, and closures within individual stakes and districts during the period when the Church did not publish ward-branch breakdowns.
This resource provides valuable data for researchers, historians, journalists, members, and others interested in analyzing long-term trends in Church growth, geographic expansion, congregational development, temple expansion, and organizational change within the United States. Users can identify historical milestones, compare growth patterns among states, examine changes in Church administration over time, and better understand how the Church has developed across different regions of the country.
The database is available for viewing in Google Sheets and may also be downloaded here.
1 comment:
I've read a comment elsewhere that a District in Chile may soon become a Stake. But unknown which one or when. But it shows that the work progresses in that far off land.
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