Mormons: Fastest Growing Church

This Often-repeated Claim Is Not Supported by Actual Data

Apr 29, 2008 Shawn Landis

The church and journalists often like to use this mantra, but it has not been true for a long time. LDS membership is actually shrinking

Mormons like to claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the fastest growing religious denominations in the world. While it was true into the 1990s, the membership of the Mormons has in fact been shrinking in every US state including Utah.

While some 13 million members are on the membership roll, the actual number of people who consider themselves Mormons is considerably less. Many people that the church claims are members are not. According to John Dehlin's “Why People Leave the Church” podcast, about two-thirds of the church members are inactive, and one-third of these people cannot be located by the church. The once meteoric growth of the Mormon church is now expressed as a negative number.

Mormon Church Growth Issues

According to charts that can be found on the LDS Church News website, the membership has gone up at a slightly decreased rate, while the number of converts has gone down. Most new members of the Mormon church now come from people being born into the faith, rather than coming from converts to the church.

Further compounding the issue is that the Mormon church cannot retain converts and many of the people who they claim as Mormons go inactive shortly after a baptism. A City University of New York Study and the Salt Lake Tribune confirm Dehlin's numbers. Both sources report that the actual number of members is declining and nearly 100 percent of the converts who were baptized into the church report that they have left it.

Because the church does not take a member's name off the rolls unless a member requests it, the 12 million member number is inaccurate in gaging Mormon church growth or the actual number of people who consider themselves Mormons worldwide.

The Negative Growth of the Mormon Church

Even the Deseret News acknowledges the 0% convert retention rate and links to a graph provided by the LDS Church News. The Provo, Utah-based publication is not quick to acknowledge that the church is losing members, especially among multi-generational members in Utah. Many of these people actively pursue the difficult process of having their names removed from the Mormon membership rolls, which contributes to the negative growth of the Mormon church.

Many of the members, some of whom are journalists, report this as though it were still a fact, although the Mormon church no longer makes claims about its growth rate. The number of converts to the church has fallen since 1997, although there was a brief spike in convert baptisms in 2007 according to the LDS Church News.

Resources:

“Keeping Mebers a Challenge for LDS Church.” Peggy Fletcher Stack. The Salt Lake Tribune. June 22, 2006. Salt Lake City, Utah

“Why People Leave the Mormon Church.” John Dehlin. 2006. (This presentation is available on Youtube.)

LDS Church News Annual Report

The copyright of the article Mormons: Fastest Growing Church in Mormonism is owned by Shawn Landis. Permission to republish Mormons: Fastest Growing Church in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Comments

Apr 29, 2008 10:39 PM

Guest :

I find your numbers completely contradictory. For example the Church records show converts and natural growth in the positive albeit at a decreased rate from the 90's, but a decreased rate of a positive does not mean the Church is shrinking. A better measure of the growth of the practicing church would be the growth in the # of wards and stakes because they are created according to active tithe payers and active priesthood quorums and that number continues to increase as well.

The numbers also mean nothing without comparison. How do these numbers compare to the Catholic Church for example? I would expect the percentage of people baptized as Catholics and who now actively practice as Catholics would be much much lower than the 1/3 remaining active out of LDS converts.

But I agree that the 13 million number does not accurately portray mormon membership in terms of active practicing Mormons and it should not be held up as a number the way it is. But that is the way all religions count their membership, it is perhaps complicated in that Mormons have exact numbers because they keep better records than most. All religions face similar challenges in retaining converts.

Bottom line is about 1/3 of individuals currently living and ever baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are active practitioners. (This percentage may or may not be higher than other faiths). The Church continues to bring in converts (positive growth) although at a decreased rate than it did in the 1990's. The 0% retention stat is simply false as evidenced by the ongoing increase in Stakes and wards and most of those new stakes and ward coming in places where growth simply by natural increase is not yet possible, the Church only being 1 or 2 generations in the country.

Apr 30, 2008 6:24 AM

Guest :

They also keep members on the rolls until their death or the age of 110, unless the once-baptised person takes the trouble to ask to be removed. Many in foreign countries are baptized and never set foot in a Mormon church again, but are still counted.

Responsible journalists should research and challenge this "fastest growing" claim and stop repeating this false advertising.

May 1, 2008 9:57 PM

Guest :

I'm a LDS member in WA. state, and was one in CA. I have been in 11 wards and the numbers are almost identical between wards. 50% inactive, and my perception of the 50% that come to church, 1/2 of those are the walking dead who do not accept church jobs (callings), pay tithing, or volunteer for anything, except eating free food. That leaves 25% members are really active. I have also heard that only about 10% of most South American members stay members. I too will be one of the inactives soon, after being baptized 18 years ago, because it takes awhile before you say hey? wait a minute...the temple ritual is almost word for word the same as the masonic temple ritual, and the book of Abraham "translation" was proven word for word inaccurate, and the B.O.M. has had literally thousands of changes since being printed, and that there is zero DNA link between South Americans and Jews as the B.O.M. says, and the list goes on and on and on... I feel most Mormons stay because of the friendships, the culture, and the difficulty of being labeled an Apostate. Thats the cult side of it...easy to get in, but really hard to get out.

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