Does the church share membership data by metro center? Would be interesting to see the membership per capita across the country if possible. I live in Northwest Arkansas and curious about how it compares to other regions from a per capita standpoint.
The religion census has data down to the county level, but it is only released every 10 years. I may do another post eventually showing county level changes from 2010-2020 which I think would still be interesting(even though it is 2025). So to answer your question: not down to metro area, but we do have county.
I enjoy reading your articles. If you receive data from prior years, note the policy change effective Jan 1, 2024 regarding the size of congregations. Requiring 100 active adults is a slightly higher hurdle to reach.
I think one year is too short for this to mean much. How about a five or 10 year change? Or an analysis of the trend over that period?
FWIW, here in NYC we’ve seen strong membership growth, in part because of the policies of a recent mission president (who left half way through 2024). But I don’t know if the number of converts from one mission is enough to swing the whole state. My feeling is that his change could account for several hundred to maybe 500 extra members — but I don’t have exact numbers.
I still think there are meaningful year-over-year changes here, but i do agree that seeing 5 year and 10 year changes would be interesting.
I recently discovered that I can access the church stats page through the wayback machine from 2019-2024, so I may try and scrape that data and see what I find.
You bring up another question that I would love to answer: Is there a mission president effect? I suspect that there is, but would love to see it play out in the data.
Does the church share membership data by metro center? Would be interesting to see the membership per capita across the country if possible. I live in Northwest Arkansas and curious about how it compares to other regions from a per capita standpoint.
The religion census has data down to the county level, but it is only released every 10 years. I may do another post eventually showing county level changes from 2010-2020 which I think would still be interesting(even though it is 2025). So to answer your question: not down to metro area, but we do have county.
I enjoy reading your articles. If you receive data from prior years, note the policy change effective Jan 1, 2024 regarding the size of congregations. Requiring 100 active adults is a slightly higher hurdle to reach.
Thanks! And this is a great callout. I'll be sure to keep this in mind.
I think one year is too short for this to mean much. How about a five or 10 year change? Or an analysis of the trend over that period?
FWIW, here in NYC we’ve seen strong membership growth, in part because of the policies of a recent mission president (who left half way through 2024). But I don’t know if the number of converts from one mission is enough to swing the whole state. My feeling is that his change could account for several hundred to maybe 500 extra members — but I don’t have exact numbers.
I still think there are meaningful year-over-year changes here, but i do agree that seeing 5 year and 10 year changes would be interesting.
I recently discovered that I can access the church stats page through the wayback machine from 2019-2024, so I may try and scrape that data and see what I find.
You bring up another question that I would love to answer: Is there a mission president effect? I suspect that there is, but would love to see it play out in the data.