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The Deseret Morning News LDS Church Almanac gives information on historical membership records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The church's reported membership as of December 31, 2015 was 15,634,199. The growth of 1.7% in 2015 is the lowest percentage growth since 1937.
Contents
Membership Defined
The LDS church defines membership as:
Growth and demographic history
The records of the LDS Church show membership growth every decade since its beginning in the 1830s. Following initial growth rates that averaged 10% to 25% per year in the 1830s through 1850s, it grew at about 4% per year through the last four decades of the 19th century. After a steady slowing of growth in the first four decades of the 20th century to a rate of about 2% per year in the 1930s (the Great Depression years), growth boomed to an average of 6% per year for the decade around 1960, staying around 4% to 5% through 1990. After 1990, average annual growth again slowed steadily to a rate around 2.2% for the ten years ending 2015, approximately double the average world population growth rate of 1.1% for the same period.
LDS Church membership numbers
LDS Church Growth From 1829 to 1860
Table for recent growth
World population numbers as of April 4, 2015.