Why a drop of over 3,700 publishers in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

by freddo 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  Vidiot

  freddo - "Why a drop of over 3,700 publishers in the Democratic Republic of Congo?"
  

  Internet penetration? :smirk:
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  mana11

  African Witnesses are leaving the Org,,, expect more downward results...

  #BestJWResultsEver
  
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I was looking at the figures last night and it looks more like the 2014 figures were overstated. I question the accuracy of their totals from year to year.
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  After I got home from work, I looked at the last few years 'average publishers' for Congo DR:

  year	average publishers	percent increase
  2010	151,842
  2011	161,298	6.2%
  2012	163,349	1.3%
  2013	174,687	6.9%
  2014	180,343	3.2%
  2015	176,585	-2.1%
• 

  Wayward

  Always possible the numbers were fudged in the first place. More likely fighting forced people to flee the country for a safer one, causing a sharp drop in one country and a sudden rise in another. When the situation becomes a bit better, people will start going home and there could be a spike in reported publishers. Just a guess though.
  
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  shepherdless

  Hi dropoffyourkeelee,

  I think there is more to it, than that. Here is your table, with the number of baptised added as an extra column:

  2010 151,842 10,711

  2011 161,298 6.2% 11,593

  2012 163,349 1.3% 10,668

  2013 174,687 6.9% 19,501

  2014 180,343 3.2% 11,052

  2015 176,585 -2.1% 10,274

  Over the same period, population increased by 13% but publisher numbers increased by 16%.

  If the figures are to be believed, what they seem to show is that over the past few years, they are very good at baptizing people, but poor at retaining them. Last year, baptisms were a little down and retention was even worse. If the figures were fudged, they were probably fudged every year.

  My bet is that it is a retention issue.

  Also, for logistical and geographical reasons, I don't think a significant number could have gone across a border, to (for example) Angola. It is a very big country in both area and population. May be a few, but not 10% or more.