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Demographics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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The demographics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include statistical data relating to the church's population and particular groups within it.

The church reports a worldwide membership of 16 million.[1] The church's definition of "membership" includes all persons who were ever baptized, or whose parents were members while the person was under the age of eight (called "members of record"),[2] who have neither been excommunicated nor asked to have their names removed from church records[3] with approximately 8.3 million residing outside the United States, as of December 2011.[4][5]

According to its statistics, the church is the fourth largest religious body in the United States.[6][7] Although the church does not publish attendance figures, researchers estimate that attendance at weekly LDS worship services globally is around 4 million.[8] Members living in the U.S. and Canada constitute 46 percent of membership, Latin America 38 percent, and members in the rest of the world 16 percent.[9] The 2012 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, found that approximately 2 percent of the U.S. adult population self-identified as a member of the church.[10]

The church saw prodigious numerical growth in the latter half of the 20th century, but the growth has since leveled off.

Membership is concentrated geographically in the Intermountain West, in a specific region sometimes known as the Mormon corridor.[11] Church members and some others from the United States colonized this region in the mid-to-late 1800s, dispossessing several indigenous tribes in the process.[12][13] LDS Church influence in the area — both cultural and political — is considered strong.[14][15][16]

Membership

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LDS membership as percentage of population by US states (2021).
LDS membership by US states (2021).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) releases membership, congregational, and related information on a regular basis. The latest membership information LDS Church releases includes a count of membership, stakes, wards, branches, missions, temples, and family history centers for the worldwide church and for individual countries and territories where the church is recognized. The latest information released was as of December 31, 2021, for the worldwide church, and December 31, 2019, for individual countries and selected territories.

At the end of 2021, the LDS Church had 31,315 congregations and a reported membership of 16,805,400.[17]

In 2005, Peggy Fletcher Stack, longtime religion columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune, estimated that about one-third of the reported LDS membership was "active" (i.e., regularly attending church services and participating in other expected meetings and obligations).[18] In 2005, this would have amounted to approximately 4 million active members among a worldwide LDS population of 12 million. Active membership varied from a high of 40 to 50 percent in congregations in North America and the Pacific Islands, to a low of about 25 percent in Latin America. Fletcher Stack's data was compiled from several sources, including a 2001 survey of religious affiliation by scholars at City University of New York and a demographer at LDS-owned Brigham Young University.

In 2003, church leader Dallin H. Oaks, noted that among recent converts "attrition is sharpest in the two months after baptism", which he attributed in part to difficulties adapting to the church's dietary code, the Word of Wisdom, that prohibits the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea.[19] In 2001, sociologist Armand Mauss estimated that about 50 percent of LDS converts in the US stopped attending church within a year of baptism, while outside the US the rate was about 70 percent.[20]

Membership statistics reported by the LDS Church have in some instances found to be inflated, with some counties in Utah having more reported members than there are people living in the county.[21]

History

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The church experienced rapid numerical growth in the 20th century, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. For instance, in 1983, non-LDS sociologist Rodney Stark predicted total church membership could reach 267 million members by 2080. He reiterated those predictions again in 1998 as membership figures continued to exceed his interim predictions.[22]

Since then, however, church membership growth has slowed, especially since around 2012.[23][24][25][26][27]

In the last decade, the church has more than doubled in size in Africa. The largest regional increases by raw numbers (according to church-reported statistics) occurred in the United States, South America, and Africa.[28]

Between 2007 and 2022, the percentage of Americans who self-identify as Mormon has dropped from 1.8 percent to 1.2 percent (according to an independent tabulation of election survey data)[29] - a percentage decrease of one-third over 15 years.

Mormon corridor

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The Mormon corridor refers to the areas of western North America that were settled between 1850 and approximately 1890 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), who are commonly called "Mormons".[30]

In academic literature, the area is also commonly called the Mormon culture region.[31][32]

It generally follows the path of the Rocky Mountains of North America, with most of the population clustered in the United States. Beginning in Utah, the corridor extends northward through western Wyoming and eastern Idaho to parts of Montana and the deep south regions of the Canadian province of Alberta. It reaches south to San Bernardino, California on the west and through Tucson, Arizona on the east, reaches west to the Jordan Valley, Oregon area extending southward to Eldorado, Texas, and finally the U.S.-Mexico border, with isolated settlements in Baja California, Chihuahua, and Sonora. Settlements in Utah, south of the Wasatch Front, stretched from St. George in the southwest to Nephi in the northeast, including the Sevier River valley. The corridor is roughly congruent with the area between present-day Interstate 15 and U.S. Route 89.

The larger chain of Mormon settlements, ranging from Canada to Mexico, were initially established as agricultural centers or to gain access to metals and other materials needed by the expanding Mormon population. The communities also served as waystations for migration and trade centered on Salt Lake City during the mid- to late 19th century.

Race and ethnicity

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Pew 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study[10] LDS (U.S.) U.S. Avg.
Married 66% 49%
Divorced or separated 7% 11%
Have children under 18 41% 31%
Attendance at religious services (weekly or more) 77% 40%
Pew Research Center 2007 Race, Ethnicity[33] LDS (U.S.) U.S. Avg.
White, non-Hispanic 86% 71%
Black, non-Hispanic 3% 11%
Other non-Hispanic 5% 6%
Hispanic 7% 12%

The racial and ethnic composition of membership in the United States is one of the least diverse in the country. Church membership is predominantly white;[34] the membership of blacks is significantly lower than the general U.S. population.[35]

Black membership

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Even though the church does not currently keep official records on the racial makeup of its membership,[36]: 269  many estimates of the total worldwide number of Black adherents have been made in the 21st century. These estimates include:

Youth activity

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Church youth often take active roles in the church. They also tend to report high degrees of formal and informal religious activity, compared with other religious teenagers. Non-LDS sociologist Christian Smith found that LDS teenagers were the most or among the most religious of all denominations studied. They were more likely to pray, attend Church weekly and feel connected to their congregation, participate in religious activities at home, have had spiritual experiences, and feel that religion is important in their lives. Smith also found positive correlations between pro-religious behaviors and pro-social qualities in adolescents.[44][45]

Activity rates and disaffiliation

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See also: Less-active Mormon and Ex-Mormon

The LDS Church does not release official statistics on church activity, but it is likely that only approximately 40 percent of its recorded membership in the United States and 30 percent worldwide regularly attend weekly Sunday worship services.[46][47][48] A statistical analysis of the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape Survey assessed that "about one-third of those with a Latter-day Saint background... left the Church", identifying as disaffiliated.[49] Activity rates vary with age, and disengagement occurs most frequently between age 16 and 25. Young single adults are more likely to become inactive than their married counterparts,[50] and overall, women tend to be more active than men.[51]

Politics

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A 2012 Pew Center on Religion and Public Life survey indicates that 74 percent of U.S. members lean towards the Republican Party.[52] Some liberal members say they feel that they have to defend their worthiness due to political differences.[53]

In 2016, following Donald Trump's proposed Muslim travel ban, many LDS Church members – who are one of the most consistently Republican voting groups – formed a significant faction of traditional Republican voters skeptical of Trump, with just 11% support in Utah. These voters saw parallels between Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric and the past persecution of Mormons in the United States. They expressed concern regarding his weak moral character evidenced by his denigration of women, extramarital involvements, questionable business scruples and personal affairs, and his general nescience regarding scripture and religion.[54][55] Nevertheless, by January 2018, many Republican church members in Utah had expressed their political support for Trump, in particular his policies on land and environmental issues, and his strongarm approach towards Democrats and other political opponents. His approval rating was 61%, higher than any other religious group.[56]

Liberal Latter-day Saints

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Democrats and those who lean Democrat made up 18% of church members surveyed in the 2014 Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Survey.[57][58] That percentage increased to 26% of church members affiliating with the Democratic Party by 2022, according to Harvard University's Cooperative Election Study.[59] There has been at least one Democratic Senator and member of the church, Harry Reid. In addition, there have been groups of Latter-day Saints that support liberal candidates, including forming the organization Latter-day Saints for Biden-Harris in the 2020 presidential election season.[60] Other examples include the ward in Berkeley, California pushing back against 2008 California Proposition 8, a ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage,[58] and other members of the church advocating for Mormon feminism (which the church has historically discouraged with blanket statements of policy, but recently advocated a more nuanced stance).[61][62]

Fertility

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In areas with a high concentration of Latter-day Saints such as Utah, household sizes and fertility rates have historically been above the national average.[63] As of 2021, American church members have an average of 2.8 children per household by ages 35-45, as opposed to a US national average of 2.06.[64]

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ "Facts and Statistics". Mormon Newsroom. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Archived from the original on July 18, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  2. ^ LDS Church 2006, pp. 145–146.
  3. ^ LDS Church 2006, pp. 116, 148–149.
  4. ^ Subtracting U.S. membership of 6,144,582 (December 31, 2011) from total worldwide membership (December 31, 2011) of 14,441,346, results in 8,296,764 (rounded to 8.3 million) members outside the United States of America
  5. ^ "Facts and Statistics: United States", MormonNewsroom.org, LDS Church, archived from the original on June 28, 2019, retrieved September 23, 2014
  6. ^ "Mainline Protestant churches no longer dominate NCC Yearbook's list of top 25 U.S. religious bodies". nccusa.org. National Council of Churches. Archived from the original on March 14, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  7. ^ "Largest U.S. Churches, 2005". Information Please Database (infoplease.com). Pearson Education. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014.
  8. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (July 26, 2005), "Keeping members a challenge for LDS church", The Salt Lake Tribune, archived from the original on February 4, 2012, retrieved December 3, 2011
  9. ^ "Facts and Statistics", MormonNewsroom.org, LDS Church, archived from the original on July 18, 2019, retrieved July 18, 2019
  10. ^ a b "Mormons". Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. 2014. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  11. ^ Allen & Leonard 1992, p. 273, 276.
  12. ^ Farmer 2008, pp. 28, 249–250, 365.
  13. ^ Defa, Dennis R. (1994). "Goshute Indians". In Powell, Allen Kent (ed.). Utah History Encyclopedia. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
  14. ^ "Mormon Political Clout". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. August 14, 2018. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  15. ^ "Latter-day Saints are Overrepresented in Utah's Legislature, Holding 9 of Every 10 Seats". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  16. ^ "The LDS Church and Utah Politics". Huffington Post. February 22, 2016. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021. One of the larger influences in Utah politics, if not the largest, is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The LDS Church, as it's often referred to, frequently voices their opinion on political issues they feel are important or relevant. Since nearly 60% of the state are members of the LDS faith including about 80% of Utah legislators, it's understandable to see that the LDS Church has considerable clout over Utah's political process. Here in Utah we see time and time again how a simple press release or statement from the Church is enough to either urge legislators to support a bill, or have the reverse effect thereby squashing any previous support for a bill. *"The Mormon Culture Region: Strategies and Patterns in the Geography of the American West, 1847–1964". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. June 1965. JSTOR 2561754. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  17. ^ "LDS Statistics and Church Facts". LDS Newsroom. April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  18. ^ Peggy Fletcher Stack (2005). Keeping members a challenge for LDS church, The Salt Lake Tribune, July 26, 2005; accessed December 20, 2017
  19. ^ Dallin H. Oaks (2003; adapted from a 2000 speech). The Role of Members in Conversion, TheEnsign.com; accessed December 20, 2017
  20. ^ Stacy Willis (2001). Mormon Church is funding its future, The Las Vegas Sun; accessed December 20, 2017
  21. ^ Larsen, A. (November 26, 2022). New U.S. Religion Census sheds light on LDS Church membership. The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved December 4, 2022
  22. ^ "LDS Church growing at warp speed, sociologist says". Deseret News. May 23, 1998.
  23. ^ Mormon growth slows to its lowest level since 1937. Here's why that's great news. Religion News Service, April 19, 2016.Archived June 9, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Mormon growth continues to slow, church report shows. Religion News Service, April 6, 2019. Archived June 9, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ Utah sees Latter-day Saint slowdown and membership numbers drop in Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Tribune. January 5, 2020 Archived March 30, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ Growth In The LDS Church Is Slowing — But Not For Reasons You Might Suspect. Religion Unplugged. April 20, 2020. Archived June 9, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ Latest from Mormon Land: COVID led to slowest church growth in 160 years; new group seeks to elect LDS women. Salt Lake Tribune, April 15, 2021. Archived June 9, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  28. ^ "Africa, Philippines Lead Church Growth". newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org. May 12, 2022.
  29. ^ The GOP has a glaring Mormon problem. Washington Post. David Byler. July 3, 2023. Accessed August 17, 2023.
  30. ^ "The Old Mormon Fort – Reading 1". Nps.gov. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  31. ^ The Current State of the Mormon Culture Region This reference also includes a map, by county of Leading Church Bodies from 2000
  32. ^ Yorgason, Ethan R. (2003). Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02853-3. (Selected text)
  33. ^ Portrait of Mormons in the U.S. Archived July 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, July 24, 2009
  34. ^ "The most and least racially diverse U.S. religious groups". pewresearch.org. July 27, 2015.
  35. ^ "Racial and ethnic composition among Mormons". pewforum.org. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
  36. ^ Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754076.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 – via Google Books.
  37. ^ Smith, Devyn M. (December 1, 2005). "The Diverse Sheep of Israel: Should the Shepherds Resemble Their Flocks?". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 38 (4). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press: 64. doi:10.2307/45227340. JSTOR 45227340. S2CID 254352025.
  38. ^ Deseret News 1999-2000 Church Almanac. Salt Lake City: Deseret News. 2000. p. 119. ISBN 9781573454919.
  39. ^ Perry Mueller, Max (March 2, 2012). "Is Mormonism Still Racist". Slate Magazine.
  40. ^ "African Americans and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". BlackPast.org. 2019.
  41. ^ "Black Mormons Assess Church's Racial Progress". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 10, 2015. [S]cholars say blacks make up a small portion of the 15 million members worldwide. ... About 3 percent of Mormons in the United States are African-American, the Pew Research Center estimated in 2009. About 5 percent of all worldwide members [750,000] are of African descent, said Matt Martinich, a church member who analyzes membership numbers with the nonprofit Cumorah Foundation.
  42. ^ Reeve, W. Paul (August 23, 2019). "Century of Black Mormons A Preliminary Interpretation of the Data". Current Research in Digital History. 2. George Mason University. doi:10.31835/crdh.2019.03. S2CID 202353551. Dr. Jacob Rugh at Brigham Young University estimates that in 2018 there were one million black Latter-day Saints globally.
  43. ^ "Mormons grappling with race issues 40 years after church's ban on Black leaders was lifted". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. June 1, 2018. The number of [B]lack Mormons has grown, but still only accounts for an estimated 6% of 16 million [or 960,000] worldwide members. Not one serves in the highest levels of global leadership.
  44. ^ Smith, Christian; Denton, Melinda Lundquist (2005), Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Oxford University Press, p. 261, ISBN 019518095X, OCLC 55947930
  45. ^ Chadwick, Bruce; McClendon, Richard (May 1, 2006). "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. by Christian Smith, with Melinda Lundquist Denton". BYU Studies Quarterly. 45 (2). Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  46. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (January 17, 2014). "New Almanac Offers Look at the World of Mormon Membership". Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  47. ^ "LDS Demographics Published, then Scrubbed by Deseret News". Mormon News, October 13–17. Signature Books. October 2014. Archived from the original on April 20, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015. Reporting on a presentation given by the church's chief information officer, a Deseret News article indicated that one of Maxfield's statistics was that "about 36% [of church members] attend weekly sacrament meetings". The Deseret News later retracted this and a few other statistics and added the following disclaimer: "some of the statistics originally reported in this article have been removed because they have not been verified by the LDS Church. The information was removed at the request of the speaker."
  48. ^ Duke, James T.; Cornwall, Marie; Albrecht, Stan L.; Cunningham, Perry H.; Pitcher, Brian L. (1998), "The Consequential Dimension of Mormon Religiosity: A Conceptual Model with an Empirical Test", in Duke, James T. (ed.), Latter-day Saint Social Life: Social Research on the LDS Church and Its Members, Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, pp. 253–292, ISBN 1-57008-396-7, OCLC 38962731, archived from the original on October 6, 2011, retrieved August 9, 2011
  49. ^ Cranney, Stephen (2019). "Who Is Leaving the Church?: Demographic Predictors of Ex–Latter-day Saint Status in the Pew Religious Landscape Survey". BYU Studies Quarterly. 58 (1): 99–108. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021.
  50. ^ Riess, Jana (October 5, 2016). "Worldwide, Only 25% of Young Single Mormons Are Active in the LDS Church". Religion News Service. Archived from the original on May 30, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  51. ^ Bushman 2008, p. 55.
  52. ^ "Majority of Mormons Lean Republican; Half Cite Discrimination Against Their Faith". ABC News. January 12, 2012. Archived from the original on September 28, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  53. ^ "Liberal Mormons: A Minority Within a Minority". USA Today. October 30, 2012. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  54. ^ Jenkins, Jack (March 22, 2016). "How Donald Trump Could End the Republican Lock on the Mormon Vote". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  55. ^ Coppins, McKay (March 19, 2016). "Mormon Voters Really Don't Like Donald Trump — Here's Why". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  56. ^ Miller, Jeremy (June 10, 2018). "Why do so many Mormons back Trump? Some say it's about the land". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  57. ^ "Religious Landscape Study". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Pew Research Center. 2014. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  58. ^ a b Emily Kaplan (September 27, 2021). "The Rise of the Liberal Latter-day Saints: And the battle for the future of Mormonism". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  59. ^ "Political Partisanship of Latter-day Saints". Religion News Service. Cooperative Election Study. 2022. Archived from the original on September 5, 2023. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  60. ^ "'Mormon Land': Going to bat for Biden in a church that swings Republican". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  61. ^ "What is the Church's stance on feminism?". www.churchofjesuschrist.org. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  62. ^ "LDS Church issues new statement on feminism". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  63. ^ The Long-Term Decline in Fertility—and What It Means for State Budgets. Pew Charitable Trusts. December 5, 2022. Accessed August 27, 2023.
  64. ^ The Future Of American Religion: Birth Rates Show Who's Having More Kids. Religion Unplugged. October 4, 2021.

Sources

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