Growth in Membership by State: 1977-2012

Membership in 20012                              Membership in 1977

The two color coded maps show membership by state in 2012 and 1977.  The color coding was set to show the state with the greatest membership, regardless of the year, as a deep red bordering on black and the state with the smallest membership as bright yellow.  The map for 2012 is clearly darker than the map for 1977 implying a large increase in membership.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reports that membership increased from 2,487,980 to 6,319,031 or 155% for the period. 

Growth bridges the gap between membership in 1977 and membership today.  What state has shown the highest rate of percentage growth since 1977?  It’s Texas followed by Georgia, New Jersey, Tennessee, Rhode Island and New York.  The states that have shown the slowest rate of growth are Wyoming, West Virginia, Idaho, Montana, California, Utah and Oregon.   Click on the “Read More” button to view a complete list of growth and rank by state.

One observation that can be made from the maps and the table is that states that experienced high growth tended to have low initial memberships and states with low growth tend to be in traditionally Mormon states like Utah, California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming, In “Church Growth by State,” I proposed a hypothesis that states that membership moves from states densely populated with Church members to states less densely populated.  A future post will explore the change in the Church membership as a percent of state population.  Another with attempt to breakdown growth between convert and child of record baptisms.

Growth in Membership by State: 1977-2012

State	Growth %	Rank
Alabama	3.86	16
Alaska	3.76	18
Arizona	3.32	28
Arkansas	4.33	8
California	1.98	46
Colorado	3.28	30
Connecticut	3.66	22
Delaware	3.39	27
Florida	4.35	7
Georgia	4.51	2
Hawaii	2.74	39
Idaho	1.77	48
Illinois	2.82	38
Indiana	1.77	48
Iowa	3.72	20
Kansas	3.96	12
Kentucky	3.31	29
Louisiana	3.17	34
Maine	3.01	36
Maryland	3.62	23
Massachusetts	4.18	11
Michigan	2.67	41
Minnesota	3.86	15
Mississippi	3.18	33
Missouri	4.23	9
Montana	1.81	47
Nevada	3.71	21
New Hampshire	3.19	32
New Jersey	4.48	3
New Mexico	2.66	42
New York	4.40	6
New Carolina	4.19	10
North Dakota	3.93	14
Ohio	3.05	35
Oklahoma	3.85	17
Oregon	2.37	44
Pennsylvania	3.44	26
Rhode Island	4.42	5
South Carolina	3.46	25
South Dakota	2,68	40
Tennessee	4.43	4
Texas	4.99	1
Utah	2.21	45
Vermont	2.61	43
Virginia	3.95	13
Washington	3.95	13
West Virginia	1.72	49
Wisconsin	3.76	19
Wyoming	1.71	50