WHICH IS THE FASTEST GROWING RELIGION?
(Investigator 191, 2020 March)
(Investigator 191, 2020 March)
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INTRODUCTION
We're going to compare the worldwide increase rates of five large, long-established religions.
We'll consider the Assemblies of God (AoG), Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs), Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs), and Roman Catholics.
The AoG, founded in 1914, is the world's largest Pentecostal group. It believes in the supernatural inspiration of the Bible; Christ's crucifixion making atonement for sins; baptism by immersion; the return of Christ to reign on Earth; "speaking in tongues"; and divine healing.
JWs began as the "Russellites" founded in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) after he separated from an Adventist group known as the Advent Christian Church. Russell's successor Joseph F. Rutherford (1869-1942), a former Baptist, came up with the name "Jehovah's witnesses" in 1931.
The Mormon Church officially began in 1830, founded by Joseph Smith (1805-1844), and later adopted the name "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints".
The SDA's developed out of the "great disappointment" of 1844 when predictions of Christ's return failed and various cults developed out of the failure. Ellen. G. White (1827-1915) became the prophet of one group which in 1860 adopted the name "Seventh Day Adventists".
STATISTICS EXPLAINED
Different religions define membership differently:
• The
AoG distinguish "Members" from "Adherents". The latter outnumber the
members and are "all persons who consider an AG church to be their
home." Table 1 excludes adherents in countries "not considered mission
fields".
• JWs take monthly counts of people who preach (usually door to door) and submit a report-slip of their activity. These they call "publishers". An Annual Report on the JW website lists the "peak publishers" for each year and the "average publishers" for the 12 months. JWs also take a count of the attendance at their annual "Memorial" of Christ's death which everyone interested tries to attend.
• SDAs and Catholics count "Baptized members" and Mormons "Baptized and confirmed".
• JWs take monthly counts of people who preach (usually door to door) and submit a report-slip of their activity. These they call "publishers". An Annual Report on the JW website lists the "peak publishers" for each year and the "average publishers" for the 12 months. JWs also take a count of the attendance at their annual "Memorial" of Christ's death which everyone interested tries to attend.
• SDAs and Catholics count "Baptized members" and Mormons "Baptized and confirmed".
The accompanying statistical tables rely on official reports published by each denomination. These differ from government censuses, the Pew Research Centre and World Christian Database. The AoG have a website on statistics by "The General Council of the Assemblies of God." JWs formerly produced yearbooks but now place an annual chart on their official website. Mormon statistics appear in Wikipedia. SDAs upload a very detailed Annual Statistical Report to the Internet. The Roman Catholic Church has the Pontifical Yearbook compiled by the Vatican's Central Office of Church Statistics.
Table 1
Worldwide Statistics 1900 to 2019 (To nearest 1,000)
Worldwide Statistics 1900 to 2019 (To nearest 1,000)
| AoG Adherents |
JWs Peak |
JWs Memorial |
Mormons |
SDAs |
|
| 1900 |
c.2,000 |
3,000 |
284,000 |
75,000 |
|
| 1910 |
c.4,000 |
11,000 |
398.000 |
105,000 |
|
| 1920 |
8,000 |
22.000 |
526.000 |
185,000 |
|
| 1930 |
48,000 |
30,000 |
670,000 |
314,000 |
|
| 1940 |
95,000 |
97,000 |
863,000 |
505,000 |
|
| 1950 |
373,000 |
511,000 |
1,111,000 |
757,000 |
|
| 1960 |
916,000 |
1,520,000 |
1,693,000 |
1,245,000 |
|
| 1970 |
1,483,000 |
3,226,000 |
2,931,000 |
2,052,000 |
|
| 1980 |
2,272,000 | 5,727,000 | 4,640,000 | 3,481,000 | |
| 1990 |
23,771,000 | 4,017,000 | 9,950,000 | 7,761,000 | 6,694,000 |
| 2000 |
38,229,000 | 6,636,000 | 14,872,000 | 11,069,000 | 11,687,000 |
| 2010 |
58,730,000 | 7,508,000 | 18,707,000 | 14,131,000 | 16,923,000 |
| 2011 |
60,231,000 | 7,659,000 | 19,375,000 | 14,441,000 | 17,480,000 |
| 2012 |
61,316,000 | 7,782,000 | 19,013,000 | 14,782,000 | 17,881,000 |
| 2013 |
62,161,000 | 7,966,000 | 19,241,000 | 15,082,000 | 18,144,000 |
| 2014 |
61,958,000 | 8,202,000 | 19,950,000 | 15,372,000 | 18,479,000 |
| 2015 |
63,524,000 | 8,220,000 | 19,863,000 | 15,634,000 | 19,126,000 |
| 2016 |
64,027,000 | 8,341,000 | 20,085,000 | 15,882,000 | 20,009,000 |
| 2017 |
64,601,000 | 8,457,000 | 20,175,000 | 16,118,000 | 20,727,000 |
| 2018 |
8,580,000 | 20,329,000 | 16,314,000 | 21,415,000 | |
| 2019 |
8,683,000 | 20,919,000 |
Table 2
Catholics Worldwide (in Millions)
| 1900 |
266 |
1990 |
928.5 |
2013 |
1,254 |
| 1910 | 291 | 2000 | 1,045 | 2014 | 1,272 |
| 1950 | 437 | 2010 | 1,195 | 2015 | 1,285 |
| 1970 | 654 | 2011 | c.1,210 | 2016 | 1,299 |
| 1980 | 784 | 2012 | 1,229 | 2017 | 1,313 |
Table 3
Percent Increase Calculated from Tables 1 & 2
Percent Increase Calculated from Tables 1 & 2
| 1990 to 2000 | 2000 to 2010 | 2010 to 2017 | |
| AoG |
60.8% | 53.6% |
10.0% |
| JWs Peak |
65.2% | 13.2% | 12.5% |
| JWs Memorial |
49.5% | 25.8% | 7.8% |
| Mormons |
42.6% | 27.7% | 14.1% |
| SDAs |
74.6% | 44.8% | 22.5% |
| Catholics |
12.5% | 12.6% | 9.9% |
Table 4
Increase 1990-2017
Increase 1990-2017
| 1990 |
2017 |
% Increase |
|
| AoG |
23,771,000 | 64,601,000 | 171.8% |
| JWs Peak |
4,017,000 | 8,457,000 | 110.5% |
| JWs Memorial |
9,950,000 | 20,175,000 | 107.6% |
| Mormons |
7,761,000 | 16,118,000 | 107.7% |
| SDAs |
6,694,000 | 20,727,000 | 209.6% |
| Catholics |
928.5 million | 1,313 million | 41.4% |
| World Population |
5,300 million | 7,550 million | 42.5% |
DISCUSSION
In absolute numbers Roman Catholicism excels as the fastest increasing religion (Table 2); but its percentage growth is slightly below world-population growth. (Table 4).
Percentage-wise the other four religions consistently outpaced world population growth between 1990 and 2017.
JWs show signs of leveling out. Their "peak publishers" increased 2½milllion 1990-2000 but only 2 million in the next 19 years. JWs, however, have the most stringent membership requirement — people need to actively promote the faith. If we compare other religions by this criterion JWs would probably stand out as the world's biggest religion. Many inactive JWs also reactivate whenever a prophesied date is near or traumatic world events remind them of their doctrine of Armageddon.
Table 3 shows the percentage growth of the five religions during two 10-year periods and a 7-year period. The AoG came first in 2000-2010; the SDA's came first in 1990-2000 and in 2010-2017.
Calculating a single percentage for each religion covering the entire period 1990 to 2017 (Table 4) reveals the SDAs as clear winner.
WEBSITES:
http://agchurches.org/About/Statistics
http://theologicalmatters.com/2014/06/19/the-assemblies-of-god-the-worldwide-growth-of-pentecostalism/.htm
https://cara.georgetown.edu/staff/webpages/Global Catholicism Release.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_Christianity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_membership_history.htm
https://www.jw.org/en/
https://labs.time.com/story/catholic-population/
BS
http://ed5015.tripod.com/
Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at:
http://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/
Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at:
http://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/