by 1rebelheart 40 Replies latest jw friends
So, I left about 5 years ago and at that time, the official ruling on number of members was a little over 6 million.
I google JW out of boredom the other day and find they are now claiming 8 million members.
Sooooo.... hold on 2 million increase in 5 years? That's approximately 400,000 every year? That's... impressive... or fraudulent.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Not really surprising.
I don't know the numbers, but I bet 80% of the increase is in Africa and south America.
In fact in countries with 5 - 7 children by women and a very religious-minded background. In the countries where evangelism have great success... In the countries under-educated, where the simple thoughts are efficient
Prior to 2000 the increase was 5% - 6%. After nothing happened it dropped to 1.5% - 2%.
Leading up to 2014 the increase was 2% - 2.5%. After nothing happened I can see it dropping to less than 1%.
The general disappointment will start to become apparent from here on and the yearly increase figures will reflect this. Especially now people are using the internet more than ever, coupled with the bad publicity the WT are getting all over the world, this is the start of the decline of the WT.
Eh... what happened during '98 - '99? Only 0.4 % increase???
remember, this is baptisms growth, this is "publisher" growth which includes unbaptized publishers.
In the western world, only about 0.2% - 0.5% of the attendance are getting baptised. If you take another 0.02% for 2 more assemblys during the year, you have a 0.6% - 0.9% growth over the year.
This figure doesn't show the amount of people leaving (dying, dfd, falling off the radar etc).
In an average cong of about 100 in the western world, i would imagine in a year, that at least 1 elderly person will die, and perhaps 1 will get dfd or fall off the radar. That is 2% of the congregation disappearing in a year.
Of course, you have to account for "young ones" getting to be unbaptized pubs.
But if your looking at baptized publishers, the WT has a serious problem.
Another side point, worldwide population growth is 1.14%. So if you use the figure of 0.9% getting baptized each year in developed lands, the WT is actually in decline already.
Numbers can lie.
I believe the hourly requirements reduced didn't they? Publishers are not necessarily baptized, correct?
When did the change happen? I imagine changing those requirements caused many more to be able to claim publisher .
steve2 - "I believe the hourly requirements reduced didn't they?"
Yet another reason they're making it easier to be a loyal JW; to pad the publisher numbers.
So i heard from someone at the assembly that the GB baffoons are saying the 67000 witness die a year. and that 5300 get baptized every weekend or around 275,600 a year. when you consider the amount of followers that get DF'd a year or become inactive.
without even calculating the growth, i just don't see how they could actually say they have over 8 million JWombie followers.
and what about us that are awake and have to go to the shite because a loved one is still binded.
i don't see the seats being filled at the asseblies nor the halls.
Remember, it's a cult!! i wish it would just go away
