Nice increase--in the number of fake field circus slips turned in on behalf of "inactive" publishers (and by the publishers to get the hounders off their backs), children being forced to do field circus and become unbaptized publishers by the time they are 5 or 6, and people being scammed by the Depression we are in to join a religion before the world gets destroyed.
Recent Annual Figures, 2009
by Joker10 21 Replies latest jw friends
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jookbeard
very interesting stats on Brazil, Catholic hotbed and a country that the WTS loves to use a an example of their growth, might well be worth watching Brazil in the coming years.
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DrJohnStMark
A close relative of mine, who had not attended the meetings for a long time, for more than a year, got a 'friendly' telephone call from a local elder. After a long 'conversation' on this and that, the purpose of the call became evident. The elder asked if she had "told about the truth to somebody recently, just to anyone, just a few words..."
A possibly unrelated thing: There was soon to be a visit by the circuit overseer in the congregation.
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LucyA
Australia has one of the highest birth-rates of first world country’s and JW Increase has only gone up 1.3% kind of suss if you ask me.
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ninja
wow lucy.....high birth rate ...low JW increase.....
hey ozzie witnesses....less pumping.....more preaching
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Balsam
I find it hard to believe there is any increas in the JW's considering the amount of JW's leaving I see here and from what people have told me about how the meeting seem to be loosing the old faces.
Ruth
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metatron
Why would surveys suggest a large decline of Witnesses while the Watchtower's figures claim the opposite, in many countries?
If you don't want to claim that you are a Witness to a census/survey taker, then tell me, what are the chances that you wouldn't care to make this claim more intensely by going door to door?
The loss in surveys while publishers 'grow' suggests to me that the Watchtower is getting the numbers it wants - and those numbers are increasingly faked by Witnesses who 'play the game' and avoid a call by the elders. This would also explain why the organization seems to be cutting back across the board while donations aren't what they used to be.
Even if you are a Watchtower apologist, I think you must admit that something is very fishy in this.
metatron
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MissingLink
Peak Publishers is a completely bogus stat. Average is the only meaningful number.
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sir82
while the Spanish might still be growing fast, they would have to be torrential to compensate in such a large way
As of 4 years ago, 25% of US JWs were in Spanish congregations (heard in person by a Society rep). The ratio has likely increased since then - let's say it's 27%, and so the count in 2008 would be 300,000 Spanish JWs in the US, and 800,000 others (mostly English).
I can easily imagine a 10% growth rate for the Spanish - in areas with a high immigrant influx, there are lots of JW success stories. It's not at all uncommon for a congregation to hve 3 or 4 new members baptized at each assembly, 10 or 12 per year.
Also, there is a large influx of immigrants who are already JWs who move to the US, and thus are counted in their figures (and would be part of that 10% growth assumption).
If the growth rate was 10% for the Spanish, that means 30,000 of the 48,000 increase was in Spanish language congregations. That leaves an increase of 18,000 JWs from other languages. That translates into a growth rate of [18,000 / 800,000] = 2.25%, or about 2 new members per congregation per year. About what you would expect from JW kids raised "in the truth" getting baptized.
I expect the JW numbers to continue increasing for a few more years, before finally levelling off, probably right around the time the world economy starts getting noticeably better.