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There are too many who report they can’t get their names removed, which should be remedied.
This seems to be a lot better than it used it be – at least if you know how to do it. From what I have read if someone directly contacts church headquarters their name is removed 60 days after the request is made unless they hear from local leaders to cancel the removal. Of course very few members know to contact church headquarters – and I certainly wouldn’t expect the LDS church to advertise it.
Brian Johnston wrote:Number of wards (“congregations”) = 28,784. If there are an average of 200 active members per ward (which is generous). That would mean our church only has about 5.8 million “active” members. That would generally be defined as showing up to sacrament meeting at least once per month (to be counted by the ward clerk).
I know that attendance is different in many areas but here in Alberta I have never lived in a ward that had fewer than 300 who attended each week. Right now our ward has 520 on the roles and a weekly average attendance of 370. If you take into account that we have several families that only attend once a month or so, then our “active” members total more than 400.
The smallest unit I have ever visited was a ward that had only be a branch a few years earlier. That week there were closer to 200 people and I couldn’t believe how few people there were.
I would like to see the global average weekly attendance numbers. I know that the church has them. I also know that we will never see them, but it would be interesting.
I would say in my experience your wards seem very large Canuck. Across California and Utah and 2 dozen other states I have attended the average at SM was 50-100 in a bout a a couple hundred wards I attended and visited. It was very common among those that 40-60% in attendance. Some higher, some lower. For my actual wards I belonged to I was a designated driver lol. That means to say that for one reason or another some couldn’t make it without transportation. Not all those that are not attending is because they don’t want to. Some don’t have support from their parents to drive them. Some live by themselves and don’t own transportation. Most “ex-mo” I have met just leave the church without notifying. Some notify and aren’t left alone, others just needed a visit and were going through hard times. I have about 16 friends who identify themselves as ex-mo but haven’t notified the church. Some are Jewish or catholic or me,bears of other faiths, some choose not to belong to any faith anymore. It’s complicated. Then there is the many pastors I have met you “claim” to have been Mormon but found “the true way(truth)”. I was(am) skeptical since so many had this story. Of the wards I went to 50% paid a full tith. This is all my experience across the USA. My fience who lives in Buenos Aires has a very different story of a lot less active there. When it gets cold the attendance can drop to almost nothing she says. Many single mothers would love to come on many Sunday’s but are forced to stay home to deal with children or other matters. Her ward that I attended was mostly female, many single mothers. But they were an amazing and very nice bunch of people. 
Of the WARDS in which I have lived and have attended as part of my various callings in multiple states and Japan, the attendance ranged from about 100 – 350. However, “congregations” 
= wards in the statistical report. That term would include branches, as well – which makes sense, because non-Mormons would have no idea the difference between a ward and a branch. Therefore, “congregations” is a good term to use. Given that, I think 200 members per congregation is a reasonable estimate for ease of reaching other stats.
If you’re looking for church statistics beyond what the church puts out, this website is by far the best I’ve found: http://www.cumorah.comhttp://www.cumorah.com” class=”bbcode_url”> Quote:Analysis of existing data on LDS member activity from official sources, national censuses, and other existing sociologic data lead to several key conclusions.
First, less than half of individuals claimed as members by the LDS Church worldwide identify the LDS Church as their faith of preference. The percentage varies from the mid-sixties in the United States to 20-27% in Latin America. The low correlations between official membership claims and self-identified religious affiliations in Latin American nations that account for the majority of non-U.S. LDS membership make it statistically impossible for this ratio worldwide to reach the 50% threshold. If neighboring nations with similar political and cultural circumstances demonstrate trends similar those of larger nations from which data are available, approximately 40% of individuals claimed as members by the LDS Church worldwide identify the Church as their faith of preference.
Second, as actual member activity and participation rates are always lower than self-identified rates of religious affiliation, existing data suggests that the number of Latter-day Saints attending church worldwide on an average Sunday cannot exceed 30% of official membership figures, and is likely closer to the upper twenties. Idiosyncratic definitions of “activity” that include members who attend irregularly or who identify the LDS Church as their faith of preference may lead to slightly higher figures not to exceed the 40% ratio of self-identified religious preference to official membership statistics, but such broader definitions are not reflective of weekly church attendance.
Third, the LDS missionary program has not been as effective in either the United States or in international areas as one would like to believe. Although convert baptisms outpace baptisms of member children by a factor of nearly three to one worldwide and are near parity in the United States, more than three-quarters of Americans identifying themselves as Latter-day Saints in independent sociologic studies are lifelong members. Such figures imply very high attrition of U.S. converts, as most nominal converts fail to become active or participating members. Data from Latin America, the Philippines, and other international areas demonstrate that three quarters of converts are entirely lost to the church within a year after baptism. While raw LDS membership numbers may appear impressive on paper, these numbers have only a fractional relationship to the far more modest number of converts who have experienced a genuine, lasting, and life-changing conversion and who experience the blessings of active participation in the work of the Church. The available evidence suggests that the primary responsibility for these fractional retention rates lie with quick-baptize tactics which have traditionally focused more on meeting monthly baptismal goals than on ensuring that converts have been adequately prepared for baptism. Recent missionary program changes with the “Preach My Gospel” manual have led to at least some improvements in these trends, although significant problems and challenges remain unaddressed.
Finally, great care is needed in researching, analyzing, and reporting activity and retention data. Pitfalls abound, and available data must be carefully scrutinized to ensure that it is well understood before valid conclusions can be drawn.
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http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=church_growth_articles&story_id=21 ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=church_growth_articles&story_id=21 I’ve been in military branches that had fewer than 10 people attending. A buddy of mine was the branch president at Camp Hovey, South Korea. It was an officially organized “congregation.” We had a short sacrament meeting, and then combined SS+PH+RS all into one second meeting. Many of the wards/branches in Germany when I was a missionary had far fewer than 100 people attending.
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