Institute Activity Rates by Country? Help!

As I present numbers that may give insights into the progress of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I hope my love for the Church, its members and those who guide it is apparent.  That love poses problems for my work as a researcher; it is a bias. The problem is not unique as all researchers confront bias.  It is how that bias is confronted that matters.  I believe that my bias propels care in measurement to accurately portray the Church as it is. I hope to inform and inspire.
The performance ratio I present here, the institute activity rate for a country, is based on a similar calculation as the seminary activity rate for a country that I presented in “Seminary Activity Rates by Country” and is presented below the body of the text.  The critical assumption in both ratios is that the percentage of a country’s population of an age demographic, 14 to 17 for seminary students and approximately 21 to 24 for institute students mirrors the percentage of the Church population in the same demographic.  The assumption may be accurate for seminary activity ratio but obviously fails in a wide range of countries for the seminary activity ratio.  It is the failure that suggests the most interesting question: why did it fail?
A Comparison of Seminary and Institute Activity Rate by Country

Country	Seminary Activity Rate	Institute Activity Rate	Country	Seminary Activity Rate	Institute Activity Rate
Africa			Ukraine	64.2	118.0
Cape Verde	27.4	48.7	UK	22.3	28.7
Cote d’Ivoire	50.5	107.6	N. America
DR Congo	46.4	77.4	Canada	51.9	57.5
Ghana	47.5	75.1	Costa Rica	29.1	30.2
Kenya	44.0	60.0	Dom. Rep	21.3	17.6
Liberia	43.2	68.5	El Salvador	22.8	19.4
Madagascar	44.5	53.0	Guatemala	25.0	24.3
Nigeria	24.7	35.8	Haiti	12.2	37.9
R of Congo	56.0	95.0	Honduras	27.2	22.5
Sierra Leone	46.8	114.1	Mexico	25.8	24.0
South Africa	32.9	48.6	Nicaragua	23.3	22.1
Uganda	22.0	26.7	Panama	28.7	20.3
Zimbabwe	31.5	46.2	Puerto Rico	17.4	20.4
Asia			USA	56.1	41.9
Hong Kong	33.3	37.5	Oceania
India	38.5	57.0	American Samoa	52.1	29.5
Indonesia	27.1	43.3	Australia	42.4	48.2
Japan	31.4	56.2	Fiji	42.7	28.6
Mongolia	39.4	60.3	French Polynesia	64.7	57.7
Philippines	24.7	19.7	Kiribati	5.0	9.7
Singapore	61.9	97.3	Marshall Islands	19.4	4.5
South Korea	22.9	50.1	New Zealand	37.3	22.9
Taiwan	26.5	61.2	Papua New Guinea	12.3	1.9
Thailand	22.0	25.8	Samoa	31.4	32.1
Europe			Tonga	40.4	25.8
Austria	53.9	117.8	S. American
Belgium	34.8	38.0	Argentina	21.6	19.0
Denmark	46.8	57.9	Bolivia	29.0	31.1
Finland	87.3	431.8	Brazil	24.5	30.2
France	24.7	48.9	Chile	18.6	15.8
Germany	49.6	69.9	Colombia	27.2	31.1
Hungary	22.2	48.7	Ecuador	22.5	17.0
Ireland	40.0	33.9	Paraguay	20.4	10.5
Italy	40.0	85.7	Peru	41.0	42.3
Netherlands	28.5	60.3	Uruguay	15.9	14.5
Norway	49.8	54.0	Venezuela	38.9	47.9
Portugal	15.5	21.4
Russia	34.4	123.7
Spain	41.3	58.7
Sweden	47.7	66.4
Switzerland	60.8	82.8

The map “Institute Activity Rate by Country” gives a quick impression of activity around the world.  Countries in blue have the highest institute activity rates.  As the rate falls, blue turns to green, yellow, brown and then red.  The data for the map is found in the table, “A Comparison of Seminary and Institute Activity Rate by Country,” and it provides the meat for discussion.  It shows both the seminary and institute activity rates for countries in all six geographic divisions of the Church.  All ratios should fall between 0 and 1.  They do not.  Six countries, two in Africa (Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone) and four in Europe (Austria, Finland, Russia, Ukraine) have institute activity rates above 1.  Another eleven have institute activity rates that are 75% greater than their seminary activity rates.  I identified three possible explanations.  The focus here is on my thought process.  My explanations might all be wrong and others may think of an additional hundred.  Comments are invited from all who have better ideas than I.  Until those comments are made, my thoughts offer a starting place.
My thinking might be ethnocentric, based on my experience in the United States.  I assumed that a student might attend seminary for up to four years while they were earning a BA degree.  If they married, institute attendance end or be greatly diminished.  For this reason, I assumed a four year range for young adult attendance rather than the ten year range of eligibility.  Perhaps students elsewhere attend for longer periods of time, (increasing the denominator and thereby) lowering the institute attendance rate.  It is also possible that young adult age members are more active than other age demographics. 
Foreign young adults who are members might attend institutes in a host country, inflating the percentage of the institute age population of members above the institute population age of the host.   
Finally, an institute program might be an integral part of the missionary program focusing on outreach.  Armand L. Mauss describes the implementation of this type of effort inthe Central Europe Area in 2003 in “Can There Be A “Second Harvest”? : Controlling the Costs of Latter-day Saint Membership in Europe,” (June 7, 2013).

Among the most recent and effective method for involving members in the missionary program is one that was “pilot-tested” in 2003, with the encouragement of two apostles, and finally implemented during the next two years in all of the stakes of the Europe Central Area, and perhaps in other areas as well. This method uses the CES classes with their Young Single Adults as “Institute Outreach Centers.” Under the ultimate direction of the local stake and mission presidents, these YSAs join with full-time missionaries to invite and bring young people of the same general age range (18 – 30) to local LDS Church buildings for Family Home Evenings, Institute classes, cultural and intellectual events, socials, and sports activities. Through these events, missionaries get many opportunities to teach young investigators in the chapels with YSA members present. So far the results of this program have been promising, not only in conversions but in retentions, for 80% of those converted through the Institute Outreach Centers are still active a year after baptism.

As noted, many of the countries with high institute attendance rates are in Central Europe. 
As I work look and various statistics about the Church it is impossible to ignore or deny growth.  Institute enrollment, seminary enrollment, membership, stakes, and missionaries are all increasing.  It is likewise impossible to ignore the vast number of members who lose their way.  In “The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley,” Sheri Dew describes a similar reflection by President Hinckley as he was leaving Japan.

“Something is tingling in my bones this morning as I sense I am here in Japan visiting with the Saints and the missionaries.  I have so many times, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in rejoicing.  And now it seems that the dark days of pioneering are behind us and that he Church is on solid footing….”  too many converts were being lost.  “Too many are coming in the front door and going out the back…”

Mark (4: 3-30) tells the parable of the sower who casts seed along his path.  Some are devoured, others shrivel from shallow roots, and still others are choked by thorns.  We are like the Servants of the Lord in Jacob 5, are assigned to care for the Lord’s fruit.  It is labor and there will sorrow and rejoicing but it is our task. 

Derivation of  Institute Activity Ratio