Church membership - Mexico

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dastardly stem
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Church membership - Mexico

Post by dastardly stem »

Some couple of years ago there was a leak, I believe, where we learned the activity rate for each stake in England. That was a fascinating look at membership in England, showing somewhere around 12% of the reported number of members are considered "active" - someone who attends a meeting once a quarter.

Recently the LDS Church Growth Blogspot reported the number of self-identifying LDS according to the 2020 Census in Mexico. Previously I've estimated Mexico to be about 15% active members. The census showed 22.5% of the members self-reporting as LDS.

The Church claims 1,498,296 members. 337,998 people in Mexico identify themselves as Mormon. Stem, who estimates by congregation sizes, has estimated Mexico has about a 15.37% percent activity rate--or 227,750 active members. I'm going to continue to say I'm probably pretty close assuming there may be quite a few members who self-identify but are not active.

From The blogspot:
Overall, the percentage of self-affiliated Latter-day Saints in the population slightly decreased from 0.24% to 0.22% between 2010 and 2020. The 2010 census reported 314,932 Latter-day Saints, whereas the 2020 census reported 337,998 Latter-day Saints. There was a net increase of only 23,066 self-affiliated Latter-day Saints between 2010 and 2020, whereas Church-reported membership increased by 246,985. Thus, the increase in the number of census-reported Latter-day Saints was 9.3% of the Church-reported increase in membership during this time. The Church in Mexico has struggled for decades with low convert retention and member activity rates. Probably only 20% of Church-reported membership in Mexico regularly attends church - a percentage that has not appeared to have significantly changed in the past two decades based on survey data from returned missionaries and local members and census data (i.e., 23.2% of Church-reported membership self-affiliated on the census in 2000). The number of Latter-day Saint congregations in Mexico decreased between 2010 and 2020 from 2,007 to 1,843 primarily due to the consolidation of wards with few active members. Moreover, Latter-day Saints are the most urbanized religious group among the largest religious groups on the Mexican census, and this appears primarily attributed to the centers of strength policy. Two-thirds (65.4%) of self-affiliated Latter-day Saints in 2010 resided in cities of 100,000 or more people—the highest percentage of any other major religious group in Mexico. Only 47.7% of Mexicans lived in such cities at the time. There has also been research that indicates Latter-day Saint families in Mexico have fewer children than non-Latter-day Saint families in Mexico per Fox K (2011) Mormon fertility in Latin America found in the BYU Scholars Archive.
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doubtingthomas
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by doubtingthomas »

dastardly stem wrote:
Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:49 pm
Stem, who estimates by congregation sizes, has estimated Mexico has about a 15.37% percent activity rate--or 227,750 active members.

James
I baptized over 200 people on my mission and can honestly say that I'm aware of roughly 10 that are still active.
Jesus Christ if true :lol:
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doubtingthomas
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by doubtingthomas »

dastardly stem wrote:
Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:49 pm
There has also been research that indicates Latter-day Saint families in Mexico have fewer children than non-Latter-day Saint families in Mexico per Fox K (2011) Mormon fertility in Latin America found in the BYU Scholars Archive.
I suspect active members are people who don't have a great social life outside the church. So, it would translate to fewer affairs and fewer lifelong partners.
Last edited by doubtingthomas on Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Wow! Approximately 80% of LDS in Mexico no longer self-identify as LDS?

In the last 2 years, the Church has closed the 3 stakes that I served in during my mission.

Just remember, the Church has never been stronger.
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doubtingthomas
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by doubtingthomas »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:17 am

In the last 2 years, the Church has closed the 3 stakes that I served in during my mission.
How many people did you baptize? and how many are still active? :lol:
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

doubtingthomas wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:19 am
Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:17 am

In the last 2 years, the Church has closed the 3 stakes that I served in during my mission.
How many people did you baptize? and how many are still active? :lol:
I was able to bring seven precious souls unto Christ on my mission. As far as I know, none of them are still active.

Although, I have had three of the seven reach out and ask me to send them money at various times. That has to count for something, right?
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

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doubtingthomas
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by doubtingthomas »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 2:23 am

I was able to bring seven precious souls unto Christ on my mission. As far as I know, none of them are still active.

Although, I have had three of the seven reach out and ask me to send them money at various times. That has to count for something, right?

Yes. And Jesus Christ do you think the members in Mexico pay 10% of their income to the church? I suspect most active members live in poverty.
"I have the type of (REAL) job where I can choose how to spend my time," says Marcus. :roll:
doubtingthomas
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by doubtingthomas »

I do wonder how many wealthy families are active.
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

I’ve told this story before, but it really highlights the problems facing the church.

My brother served a mission in Korea in 1987-1989. Most of that time he served in a small town in the middle of the country called Gimcheon.

Fast forward 30 years and our families decided to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea. My brother was very excited to show us where he served and to see how much the church had grown during those 30 years.

On Sunday we arrived in Gimcheon about 30 minutes before church started. Gimcheon was now a very modern city and the population had tripled in size since my brother had last been there, decades ago.

Well, it turns out there were seven people attending on Sunday (excluding us and the four missionaries). My brother didn’t recognize anyone. He could scarcely hide his disappointment.

It turns out that in the last 30 years, Korea had gone from 17 stakes to 12. And according to the Elders, there was about a 5% activity rate in the country.

Well, I guess the church can be thankful it has Africa.
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Dr Exiled
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Re: Church membership - Mexico

Post by Dr Exiled »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:52 pm
I’ve told this story before, but it really highlights the problems facing the church.

My brother served a mission in Korea in 1987-1989. Most of that time he served in a small town in the middle of the country called Gimcheon.

Fast forward 30 years and our families decided to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea. My brother was very excited to show us where he served and to see how much the church had grown during those 30 years.

On Sunday we arrived in Gimcheon about 30 minutes before church started. Gimcheon was now a very modern city and the population had tripled in size since my brother had last been there, decades ago.

Well, it turns out there were seven people attending on Sunday (excluding us and the four missionaries). My brother didn’t recognize anyone. He could scarcely hide his disappointment.

It turns out that in the last 30 years, Korea had gone from 17 stakes to 12. And according to the Elders, there was about a 5% activity rate in the country.

Well, I guess the church can be thankful it has Africa.
I think the Church needs another isolation period where those caught in the isolation area are forced to remain and endure endless indoctrination for a generation or two or three. Isolating in Utah and surrounding areas did the trick before. Without this isolation, the church would have been absorbed by the surrounding christian faiths as innovation seemingly died once Joseph Smith wasn't there any longer to copy and invent stuff.
Myth is misused by the powerful to subjugate the masses all too often.
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