Church Membership Reaches 10 Million

During the first week of November 1997, the Church reached 10 million in membership. Church statisticians say the estimate is based on reports from local units around the world and recent growth trends. Currently the Church grows annually at an average rate of 3.8 percent; in the United States and Canada, the rate is about 2 percent, while in all other areas of the world the combined growth rate is 5.6 percent.

From the Church’s formal organization in western New York in 1830, it was 117 years before membership reached the million mark in 1947. The latest million have been added in just the past three years. Total Church membership reached the nine-million mark in 1994 and the eight-million mark in 1991. During 1996, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, 321,385 converts and 81,017 eight-year-olds were baptized worldwide.