Analysis of 2017 vs 2016 Yearbook reports for Europe

by Splash 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Splash

  Hi Alanv, this list of countries came from a Google search of countries in Europe, nothing more sophisticated than that, hence my opening comment "countries which roughly constitute Europe".

  The 2017 figures came from the list darkspilver helpfully compiled (thanks darkspilver!) and the 2016 figures are from the yearbook.

  I had no agenda or preconception prior to compiling the list, so did not pick and choose countries in order to affirm a bias. I was simply looking for whether Europe seems to be stagnant, increasing or decreasing.
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  Confusedalot

  Well, an increase is normally attributed to god blessing the kingdom work. When a decrease is noted then it is explained as 'cleansing' before the end. GB always has an answer.
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  berrygerry

  alanv
  I'm sure the society know very well that the peak publishers is not an accurate way of measuring congregational service activity. But they have gone with it because the average publisher figures look even worse than the peak publishers figures.

  Of course they do. What other outfit knowingly counts people twice (or even more)?

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011609?q=peak+publishers+counted+twice&p=par
  
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  darkspilver

  berrygerry: Of course they do. What other outfit knowingly counts people twice (or even more)?
  

  Here's a chart showing visually how it used to work out:
  

  Watchtower's Peak Publishers are FAKE Publishers
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  alanv

  Splash said

  Hi Alanv, this list of countries came from a Google search of countries in Europe, nothing more sophisticated than that, hence my opening comment "countries which roughly constitute Europe".

  Yes thats fine splash and I certainly didnt mean to criticise in any way. I actually did much the same work as you on Europe, but didnt actually publish it. So was great to see you had done it.
  
  
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  Diogenesister

  So as with Japan, Poland's decline might to some extent be in proportion to its previous meteoric rise.

  Good point SBF
  
  
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  Splash

  No sweat alanv, I didn't read your comment as criticism, just someone wanting to point out something.

  Yay, that's what we're all here for!
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  Slidin Fast

  These figures are very interesting. It looks like however you spin it, Europe is on the decline whilst North America is at best stagnated. If this was a company, the shareholders would be voting with their feet.

  My only suggestion would be to use average publishers rather than peak to evaluate how healthy membership numbers are. Peak publishers are a fiction, average publishers probably are as well. It does look as though WT are trying to hide the truth though, you just wonder what they are actually hiding.
  
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  Dreamerdude

  Nice work Darkspilver and Splash. I like seeing honest analysis of the numbers behind the trends we are seeing. The numbers speak for themselves, even when the numbers are selected and presented by the Wt, which clearly has an agenda to push. It is hard to put a positive spin on these numbers, but they do try. Yes, we have 600 more peak pubs in the US and 462 fewer congregations.
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  steve2

  The absence of reporting country-by-country Memorial attendances for 2017 is also a first in these once slavishly detailed JW reports.

  Whilst there was an increase in worldwide numbers attending the Memorial in 2017 compared with the previous year, my guess is the increase was confined to a few JW-growth “star” countries and that in the West, attendance “stagnation” or actual decline was evident. But, of course, we now cannot tell because only the global number has been reported.

  Expect more of this as the once-paraded numbers for specific measures (eg., Bible Studies, Memorial attendances, Baptisms) are now confined to global totals.