I just looked at the stats online for JW growth over the last several years. Though about 250,000 are being baptised each year, total membership (publishers) is only going up by about 100,000 each year. That means 150,000 people are leaving each year. That only about a 1.6% growth rate, not even matching population growth rates.
How many Jehovah's witnesses are there now?
by Stan Conroy 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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kid-A
South American countries have bucked this trend though.
Indeed, there are now more active JWs in Colombia than Canada!! LOL
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AuldSoul
As the Internet becomes more widely available this organization will die. There are active pushes to get access to the Internet widespread. Especially by the porn industry.
AuldSoul
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Seeker4
I found it incredible that baptisms have dropped by a third from 1996 til now, yet the average number of publishers has increased by about 1 million in the same time.Then I thought about it. As someone mentioned, there are about 250,000 people being baptized each year now, but worldwide growth is actually only about 100,000 a year, which means that 150,000 people are leaving each year.
That's incredible.
S4
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stillajwexelder
It is about 7 years since the Disfellowshipping numbers were given officially - but one watchtower said about 40,000 per year are disfellowshipped so that means about 110,000 leave or fade each year
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free2beme
Does anyone have the whole country by country report we used to get for 2004?
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stillajwexelder
It is an annoying absence on the CD-ROM -= no annual worldwide report it just says
***
w04 1/1 "Into All the Earth Their Sound Went Out" ***[Chart
on page 18-21]2003
SERVICE YEAR REPORT OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES WORLDWIDE(See bound volume)
[Pictures
on page 14, 15]The chaos of the second world war did not cause Christians to doubt that the good news would be preached
[Credit
Line]Explosion: U.S. Navy photo; others: U.S. Coast Guard photo
[Pictures
on page 16, 17]The great crowd would come out of all tribes and tongues
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steve2
Given the relatively young age that JWs marry and the higher child-bearing in JW families compared with national child-bearing, the Watchtower should be "guaranteed" high increases in publishers from all the children going out in field service with their parents - but I don't think that is happening.
Prior to my leaving in the early 1980s, the kingdom halls in New Zealand were teeming with young children. Yet, a decade later and since, the annual number of publishers has hardly reflected the large numbers of young ones born into the religion. If people are not dropping out altogether, I think there's a huge growth in the number of inactive Witnesses who continue to identify themselves as JWs but whose most "active" expression is meeting attendance. As time passes, the JWs resemble in composition the very churches they've criticised for so long: Full of nominal believers.
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wannaexit
........Stan, what is the matter with you. If you wouldn't sleep through the meetings so often you'd know and I wouldn't have to jab you in the ribs to wake you up..........................your wife Betty
wannaexit (just having some fun with you)
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bennyk
Well, it would be nice to think that 110 000 are leaving each year (would make a nice support system "outside" the Org, thereby greasing the skids for increased voluntary downsizing), but we ought not forget that people also leave in a box: the average death rate would thin the Witness ranks approx. 0.9% every year...