Watchtower statistics

by Realist 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Realist

  has anyone actually added up the numbers in the WT statistics?

  look at http://www.watchtower.org/statistics/worldwide_report.htm

  if you add the numbers up you get actually 5,682,705 witnesses....NOT 6,117,666.
• 

  RunningMan

  I just did a quick add of the thousands column, and came up within 3000 of their total. You might want to re-add the numbers. They look right. Make sure you are looking at the "peak" column.
• 

  Matty

  Is the peak for the whole world the highest figure for one particular month of the year world-wide, or do they add the individual countries peaks together where different countries have peaks in different months?
• 

  RunningMan

  They add the individual peaks.

  So, many of the peaks have double counting. For example, in Canada, the annual peak is usually in August. This is because people are on vacation in July, put in their report too late to be counted that month, then put in time in August again. So, the July number for Canada is usually around 105000, and in August it is 111000. There are probably only 108000 Witnesses, but 3000 put in late July reports and were counted twice in August.
• 

  acsot

  So, many of the peaks have double counting. For example, in Canada, the annual peak is usually in August. This is because people are on vacation in July, put in their report too late to be counted that month, then put in time in August again.

  I never clued in to that ! Sheesh, so no one can really know how many "publishers" there are. So how would you work out how many baptized Witnesses there are? It's got to be a lot less than 6,000,000, doesn't it?
• 

  funkyderek

  I imported the table into Excel and all their figures are spot on, except the no. of congregations which is off by 2 (sloppy work but unlikely to be deliberate). Adding up the peak publishers in all countries to attain a world peak is very suspect though, as it obviously won't be the same month in every country and people who move from one country to another may well be counted twice. As the WTS is in the business of sending missionaries "where the need is greater" the effect may be significant although is likely to be tiny. One thing is sure, the bottom line is not a true picture of the number of active JWs at any one time.

  They used to publish an average figure as well which always differed substantially from the peak figure, I don't know if they still do. Does anybody have the January 1 WT to check?
• 

  jws

  Anybody sum the individual populations for each country. I'd like to compare the ratio of total JWs to total population and see what direction that's going in.
• 

  MacHislopp

  Hello realist,

  a very good question to come back after a nice and correct research.

  JW: a fast one..

  If you add all the population of the listed countries you still have

  more than 2 BILLIONS people, and according to the mighty WTBS Inc.

  only 10,672 publishers (peak) ...suppose to do the "preaching "

  for the 28 nations not mentioned!!!

  To give you an idea: China, Marocco, Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq,

  Lybia, Syria, Afghanistan,South Korea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,

  Tibet, etc. etc.

  Another quick one: The n° of congregations in Japan:

  year 2002 ......total 3,305 year 2003 ......total 3,213

  Greetings, for now J.C.MacHislopp
• 

  Realist

  hmmmm

  i also put the numbers into excel...but i get 5,6 million...i guess i have to check my excel version :)
• 

  Realist

  sorry guys! excel deleted the zeros at the end of the numbers.