Mormon membership reflects that of the JWs! It not only reflects, but it would verify that Wt statistics are true and accurate. Herein, are my reasons why.
LDS general conference, which is the equivalent of the JW memorial, has an attendance of around 20 million ( that's people, who physically turn up). The church also allows live streaming for those who can't be physically present. However, the people choosing this online option is the unknown in this equation.
Lets now look at 2 different scenarios for LDS general conference to see how this compares to the JWs:
Scenario 1- has a physical attendance of 20 mill, with a further 10 million choosing to view it on line. Therefore, 1/3 attendees were unaccounted for as not being physically present. The total attendance figure of 30 million people.
Scenario 2 - also has a physical attendance of 20 million, with a further 20 million viewing on line. That been 1/2 of the attendees been unaccounted for, due to not been physically there. The total attendance been 40 million people.
Now before we all get carried away, and use this to prove how ineffective the JW preaching work has been because the Mormon's are so much bigger. There are a few things we need to be aware of regarding these totals:
*The 30 and 40 million totals, would be a maximum rather than a minimum. The same could also be said for the 20 mill memorial attendees, been a higher rather than a lower figure. So let's say, for arguments sake, that the total was between the 2 scenarios at 35 million.
*One could also speculate that if the JWs also allowed live streaming of their annual event weather they could produce a similar figure to that of the LDS. This is the unknown in the equation.
*The counting methods, and the definition of what a member is, varies quite widely between the two faiths.
It has been estimated that the activity rates for the Mormon church could be as low as 33%. Therefore, 35 million attendees x 33% = 11.55 million people ,who at the very least, attend LDS church services once a week.
The point is this. when the LDS (11.5 million) is measured against the JW 8.7 average publishers. They are totally in range of each other, and totally logical. This is assuming that there were, in fact, 35 million LDS attendees. If anything, this would lend support that Wt is, in fact, telling the truth about its membership. These are, after all, to groups facing similar problems. The 2.8 million variance can easily be explained away, by the fact, that the Mormon church was established 50 years before Wt. If for example the LDS figure was indeed 11.5 mill, but the JW peak publisher rate was 40 million, one could justifiably have doubts. This just isn't the case.