LDS Growth Still Under 2% a Year

For that was billed to be “an historic conference,” there wasn’t that much different to make this particular one unique as any other one lately. There was the “Hosanna” shout, which commemorated the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. There was a “Proclamation” that contained about 80% of what was in the 2000 proclamation on the Living Christ. There was a new logo, taking the Christus. Everything else as far as I can tell was the same. Some people released, new people called, some new temple locations announced…

What interests me most these days (at least when there’s no new apostle to be called) is what the numbers show. While this is the sixth year in a row with growth under 2%, the drop-off wasn’t as low as it was the year before. The Church doesn’t release statistics on how people of record die each year, nor how many resignations/excommunications there were, so I use the other numbers they do give to calculate that.

Last year it worked out that 140,000 died or resigned but this year it was only 90,000. That shows an unusually low amount based on trends. When I asked around about it, some said it may be due to how the Church has made it more difficult to resign. Now you have to have a notarized signature to get your name removed if you go through QuitMormon. Still, a mere 0.56% drop from the rolls indicate that either hardly anyone died, hardly anyone resigned, or the numbers aren't quite accurate. This isn't the first year the numbers have caused me to raise an eyebrow.

==First Presidency==

(1)  1984-(SWK)-Russell M. Nelson - 9/9/1924 - 95 - USA-UT

(2)  1984-(SWK)-Dallin H. Oaks - 8/12/1932 - 87 - USA-UT

(5)  1995-(GBH)-Henry B. Eyring - 5/31/1933 - 86 - USA-NJ

==Quorum of Twelve Apostles==

(3)  1985-(SWK)-M. Russell Ballard - 10/8/1928 - 91 - USA-UT

(4)  1994-(HWH)-Jeffrey R. Holland - 12/3/1940 - 79 - USA-UT

(6)  2004-(GBH)-Dieter F. Uchtdorf - 11/6/1940 - 79 - Czech (German)

(7)  2004-(GBH)-David A. Bednar - 6/15/1952 - 67 - USA-CA

(8)  2007-(GBH)-Quentin L. Cook - 9/8/1940 - 79 - USA-UT

(9)  2008-(TSM)-D. Todd Christofferson - 1/24/1945 - 75 - USA-UT

(10) 2009-(TSM)-Neil L. Andersen - 8/9/1951 - 68 - USA-UT

(11) 2015-(TSM)-Ronald A. Rasband -- 2/6/1951 - 69 - USA-UT

(12) 2015-(TSM)-Gary E. Stevenson - 8/5/1955 - 64 - USA-UT

(13) 2015-(TSM)-Dale G. Renlund - 11/1/1952 - 67 - USA-UT

(14) 2018-(RMN)-Gerrit W. Gong - 12/23/1953 - 65 - USA-CA (Chinese)

(15) 2018-(RMN)-Ulisses Soares - 10/2/1958 - 61 - Brazil