An additional % live in california while 7% reside in idaho, 5% in. Jan 09, 2019 mexico has the highest population of mormons outside the u. A collection of informative and visually appealing infographics relating to topics of mormonism. Through its final edition, which was published for 20, the deseret morning news church. Nevertheless, ignoring the logistic nature of population growth was a fundamental flaw in starks model. For example, robert flanders simply states, the population of illinois trebled during each decade between 18201840 and doubled between 1840 and 1850. With a combined adult male population of probably no more than 60, the groups could probably only have been some limited miles apart in order for wars even to be feasible. A closer examination of growth and retention data demonstrates that lds growth trends have been widely overstated. On the other hand, the nephites and lamanites, whose thousandyear history comprises most of the book of mormon ca. The first person to be baptized by the ldschurch was. Can you comment on the demographics of the book of mormon people.
As latterday saints we are urged to study the book of mormon and apply its teachings to our lives. Better understand the expansive growth of printing in early nineteenthcentury america and how that affected society. The mormon church has said it plans are necessary because urban growth in the area is inevitable. As is the case with most religions here in the united states, mormon growth is starting to slow. Population growth in the book of mormon wednesday, october 10, 2012. However, latinos are the fastestgrowing group in the church.
Countries with the largest mormon populations worldatlas. How could so many people have died at the battle of cumorah. Yet there are bright spots in terms of international retention and member activity. The mormons reported a population of ten thousand by late 1842. Exploring beyond the scale of the land itself, the massive construction projects described throughout the text surely would have endured, just as did the structures of so many lesser advanced early. Understand the creation and publication of an important american religious text, the. In the book of mormon, in one battle between the combined nephitelamanite army and the gadianton robbers, the prophet mormon commented that there never was known so great a slaughter among all the people of lehi since he left jerusalem. Apologists may walk back population claims at their convenience, but they simultaneously undermine the validity of the book of mormon itself. For example, under a low population growth rate kunichs for mula predicts that.
In 1823, smith said an angel directed him to a buried book written on golden plates containing the religious history of an ancient people. I have written a little about book of mormon population numbers before, but i dont believe ive ever done it for the jaredites. Mormons trace their origins to the visions that joseph smith reported he had in the early 1820s while living in upstate new york. New approaches to the book of mormon brent lee metcalfe, editor. Annual lds growth has progressively declined from over 5 percent in the late 1980s to less than 3 percent from 2000 to 2005. That rate would result in about 33 nephites and lamanites 200 years later. Number of people in the book of mormon lds teachers toolbox. Demographics mormonism, the mormon church, beliefs. This graph is calculated by dividing each years change in membership by total membership for each year. I began this blog in late 2007 to provide a forum to discuss lds growth developments and share information. Number of mormons to peak at 20 million in 2045 mormonism 101. Until that time, human population was increasing at a rate dwarfed by modern figures. Populations in the book of mormon by study and faith.
The lds church did their first missionary work in mexico in 1874 right after the book of mormons was translated to spanish by meliton trejo and daniel jones. In his speculations on book of mormon populations, vern elefson 1984 briefly discussed population figures contained in the book of mormon, and then reverseengineered them to estimate the growth rate that must have prevailed for those figures to be reached. Thats not a likely number given the record in the book of mormon. And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one.
Nephitelamanite populations with the most conservative estimates possible. As the value of n gets nearer to the carrying capacity, however, the growth rate slows dramatically as the population approaches but does not exceed the carrying capacity. The book of mormon population growth rate would have to have been more than double that of the roman empire and other peers. When the value of n is small, the growth increases almost exponentially, as in equation 2. The mormon churchs financial growth has been fueled by sacred taxation tithing. Mexico has the highest population of mormons outside the u.
For many years now, these numbers seem to show consistent, even exponential growth, making church leader quentin cook recently proclaim that the church of jesus christ of latterday saints has never been stronger. The book of mormon includes specific population numbers which make it possible to evaluate the authenticity. The book of mormon and the growth of printing in america. Explore the connections in this period between religion and print culture. Thomas ford in his history of illinois wrote that there were by the end. In 20 the growth rate dropped below 2% for the first time, and it has gone down since, with 2016 at 1. Aug 22, 2016 according to the pew research center, seven percent of u. There are currently over 80,000 missionaries in 162 countries 20, and in the year 2000 alone five million copies of the book of mormon were handed out. And then whether that amount of population growth would even be plausible compared to other populations with similar environments.
Mormons believe in the bible, as well as other books of scripture, such as the book of mormon. Book of mormon population statistics meridian magazine. The conclusion states, much as critics and defenders of the book of mormon would like to use dna studies to support their views, the evidence is simply inconclusive. Population growth and the book of mormon quantumleap42. In such an analysis, the assertions of population growth in the book of mormon approach the ridiculous. Book of mormon population sizes, advocates a growth rate of 0. During general conference, buried in the official statistics that make up the lds churchs annual report, we learned that the lds church grew by 261,862 people in 2015, a 1. John kunichs essay on book of mormon population sizes. Can you comment on the demographics of the book of mormon. Critics challenge the viability of the population size and growth of the book of mormon people. They have a unique view of cosmology and believe that all people are spiritchildren of god. As mormons believe in jesus christ, they are considered to be christians. His best guess was an average annual rate of increase of 1. Mormon growth slows to its lowest level since 1937.
Absolute growth is greatest in latin america, but the rate of growth is highest in africa and the former soviet bloc. In the last 50 years, membership has increased tenfold. Latterday saint blogs is a portal for mainstream blogs about the church of jesus christ of latterday saints. For the last 15 years, an average of 800 people have joined the lds church every day. Book of mormonpopulation and demographics fairmormon. Book of mormon peoples and precolumbian populations, fairmormon conference, 2003, online at archive book of mormon central, why hasnt lehis dna been found. So, without knowing what this persons opinion is of the population growth it is impossible to answer your question. So the worlds population is growing at a rate about 400% faster than the lds church or to put it another way, the mormon church is falling behind population growth by 83,700,000 each year. The mormon church traditionally announces a statistical update during its april general conference. Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates in march 1830 as the book of mormon, named after mormon, the. Nor is the growth of the mormon church in the 170 years since its founding particularly meteoric at least not in comparison with other religions that the mormons consider false. The book of mormon is the sacred text of mormonism. An additional % live in california while 7% reside in idaho, 5% in nevada and 4% each in oregon and arizona. Nov 20, 2007 so, without knowing what this persons opinion is of the population growth it is impossible to answer your question.
The book of mormon and the growth of printing in america objectives. Estimates put growth rates in ancient prehistoric australia at 0. According to the pew research center, seven percent of u. Jun 25, 2019 at least one researcher has projected significant growth in the numbers of lds members for the rest of the 21st century, forecasting in 2012 that the world would have more than 125 million mormons by 2120. The book of mormons own population data is consistent with this figure. The church of jesus christ of latterday saints membership. Though a relative slowing of the growth rate continues, although it slightly increased in 2019, church membership growth continues to outpace the world population growth rate, which is currently around 1. Mormon church set to become worlds largest charisma news. The growth of the mormon church is among the fastest of any denomination on the planet. My interest in researching the growth of the lds church began in 2002. Currently church growth is right around three percent every year. Dan browns inferno and the dangerous myth of overpopulation.
What do we know about the numbers of nephites and lamanites. I have also worked for the cumorah foundation since 2009 providing research assistance and resource development on lds growth and missionary work. To be of good standing, all mormons must tithe, or give 10 percent of their gross income to the church. Growth of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints. Mormons believe that returning to god requires following the example of jesus christ, and accepting his atonement through ordinances such as baptism. Number includes both lehis family and the mulekites who colonized during the same period.
The churchs reported membership as of december 31, 2019 was 16,565,036. At first glance the modern reader might suppose that rapid population growth in the book of mormon is an anachronisma misplaced modern idea in a supposedly ancient text. Although the book of mormon is silent on population growth and decline as such, it does provide glimpses of how the numbers were growing. My question is basically whether or not one could extrapolate some estimation of what lamanite and nephite populations would have been in the book of mormon. If this were applied to the 57 people from lehis company and projected to the. I only looked up and started skimming through the other essays or articles on this topic after writing most of this post. Indeed, the population figures given in the book of mormon show a rather gradual population growth over the years. When describing the lds population, he quotes others. Critics of the book of mormon who say that there cannot be the number of people claimed in the book of mormon make the opposite error, often using documents of ehrlich and his fellow doomsayers. Mormon population religionwiki fandom powered by wikia. Population growth and the book of mormon every so often i come across an argument against the book of mormon that i feel i have to respond to in some way. Mormon population mormonism, the mormon church, beliefs.
John sorenson, the geography of book of mormon events. At least one researcher has projected significant growth in the numbers of lds members for the rest of the 21st century, forecasting in 2012 that the world would have more than 125 million mormons by 2120. Size of nephite and lamanite populations book of mormon. Mormon growth continues to slow, especially in the us. The book of mormon includes specific population numbers which make it possible to evaluate the authenticity of book of mormon growth rates against known growth rates for similar cultures. In reading ether, how could there possibly be so many. Through its final edition, which was published for 20, the deseret morning news church almanac gave information on historical membership records of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints lds church. This includes more than 300,000 converts a year plus growth through members having families. In 2018, there were 16,118,169 members worldwide with the highest population found in the united states at 6,592,195 members. For example, the data on armies and battle casualties indicate quite consistent growth. The book of mormon contains many overt references, and some more oblique ones, to other peoples that were part of the demographic mix in book of mormon times a superficial reading of the book of mormon leads some to conclude that the named members of lehis group were the only members of nephitelamanite society. This graph shows the growth rate of the mormon church. An essential requirement for any demographic study is to determine what growth rates to use for escalating numbers forward and backward.
But the rate of population growth, which in the past only under very exceptional circumstances ever rose to 2 percent a year on rare occasions 3 percent for short. The book mormons nephites have multiple large citys. There are currently over 60,000 missionaries in 162 countries, and in the year 2000 alone five million copies of the book of mormon were handed out. The importance of a good sales force posted on november 4, 2012 by avram miller 11 comments given the potential election of the first mormon president, mitt romney, i have been trying to learn a bit about the mormon faith and was pretty amazed to find out their are now more mormons then jews. Population growth in the book of mormon the book of mormon population growth rate would have to have been more than double that of the roman empire and other peers. A high side estimate of population growth would be 3 % per year. The church of jesus christ of latterday saints lds, better known as the mormon church, is on track to become the largest both in the united states and in the world at largeand the secondlargest religious body in the world during the next 100 years so says mark koltkorivera, ph.
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of spanishlanguage. Therefore, we might assume that many others natives were involved. Populations in the book of mormon latterday saint blogs. Moreover, in the early 1980s it may have been difficult to see the reversal of the mormon growth trend, although it might have been more apparent when stark revisited his prediction in 1998. Calculating potential population purely from elapsed time take the form of the following equation. How many nephites the book of mormon at the bar of. Lets go over ancient population growth rates before cycling back to the book of mormon people.
In fact, roughly onethird of all american mormons 35% live in utah, the state founded by its early leaders. May 25, 2014 population growth and the book of mormon every so often i come across an argument against the book of mormon that i feel i have to respond to in some way. Mormon growth is down to about one and a half percent around the world and half that in the united states. Islam began in 622 ad, and, according to the encyclopedia britannica, it developed into a world civilization with extraordinary rapidity in the course of less than. Some arguments are so trivial that they can be dismissed out of hand but there are a few that look damaging on first view but with a little thought and additional information the apparently. An obvious puzzle is how the lamanites could have become so much more numerous than the nephites. Critics challenge the viability of the population size.