I think the Church is in a (self inflicted) difficult position on this one. They could report the number of names registered as members and they could report the number of people that sit in the pews on any given Sunday. Neither would give an accurate count of who considers themselves Mormon. What constitutes Mormon Membership - having your name on a list; attending weekly, monthly, twice a year; not attending but still considering yourself a Mormon etc?simon southerton wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 5:52 amIn Tonga, about 99% of the population attends church weekly. 80% of Tongans said on the census they attended a Christian Church other than the LDS Church. The LDS Church says 62% of Tongans are Mormons. This means that two out of every three Tongans the Mormons count, are actively attending another church. They are not just inactive, they are effectively apostates. This Mormon propaganda is becoming increasingly obvious to statisticians and people who belong to these other churches.
I'm not sure there's a meaningful number they could report in terms of people getting an accurate picture of "membership".
Let me add. I don't have a problem with the Church reporting how many names are on their membership register. So long as they don't misrepresent the meaning of that number, like Monson did a few years ago when he said “We are now more than 15 million strong and increasing in numbers,” at General Conference 2014.