A Look at Church Statistics for the year ending December 31, 2023
It would be nice if the church reported the number of "Children of Record Baptized", rather than the number of "Children of Record Born" as we could infer some other important statistics from that. Namely the number who died or were excommunicated.
The number of stakes grew to 3,565 a gain of 414 over 2022. Since 2013 the growth in the number of stakes has been consistently just above 400. Meanwhile, the number of districts dropped by 28, to 489. The number of wards however grew by just 160 to 31,490. This probably represents adjustments from membership loss and an aging membership during the pandemic. My stake dropped in the number of wards on January 7, 2024, for these reasons, as we lost two wards and one branch.
Finally the number of dedicated temples is starting to take off. The year 2023 set a new record with nine dedications in a single year. Look for even more in 2024.
See the charts below:
The data for the year 2023 shows improvement in church membership metrics as the world continues to climb out of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Church membership grew by just over a quarter million reaching 17.3 million. That growth equaled the results during 2019 before the pandemic. However, every year from 2000 through 2015 had a higher number of new converts than 2023 with most years recording over 300,000. The number of converts per missionary rose to 3.9, the highest level since 2013.
The number of missionaries serving at year-end was 67,841, the highest level since 2016 when there were just over 70,000. The number of Church Service missionaries dropped again to just under 28,000. This number peaked in 2018 at 37,963. Perhaps the church counts these differently than before.
The number of stakes grew to 3,565 a gain of 414 over 2022. Since 2013 the growth in the number of stakes has been consistently just above 400. Meanwhile, the number of districts dropped by 28, to 489. The number of wards however grew by just 160 to 31,490. This probably represents adjustments from membership loss and an aging membership during the pandemic. My stake dropped in the number of wards on January 7, 2024, for these reasons, as we lost two wards and one branch.
The number of stakes grew to 3,565 a gain of 414 over 2022. Since 2013 the growth in the number of stakes has been consistently just above 400. Meanwhile, the number of districts dropped by 28, to 489. The number of wards however grew by just 160 to 31,490. This probably represents adjustments from membership loss and an aging membership during the pandemic. My stake dropped in the number of wards on January 7, 2024, for these reasons, as we lost two wards and one branch.
Finally the number of dedicated temples is starting to take off. The year 2023 set a new record with nine dedications in a single year. Look for even more in 2024.