6,741,444 Publishers in 99,770 congregations.
1,059,325 Peak Publishers in the lower U.S. This is a 2.3% increase.
South Korea has yet, again, to post a zero or negative growth, and this being the most Internet/ wired country in the world. Publishers are up another 1%.
Countries with 1% growth include France, Austria, Britain, Italy and Norway.
Former Soviet Union countries: Russia, 146,472 peak publishers (up 3%); Ukraine, up 2%; Kyrgyzstan, up 5%; Azerbaijan, up 12%; Armenia, up 4%.
In Rwanda, the brothers continue be to have problems with the police because of the flag salute issue. Some have been sent to prison and beaten. Children have been expelled from school. There was a 5% increase in publishers.
Watchtower representatives traveled to Egypt to help put a stop to the secret surveillance. It seems it helped since they don't have much of a problem now.
Countries with good growth: Mexico now has over 600,000 publishers. Brazil has 656,627. Zambia has 140,203 and the best ratio ever (1 in 83 people are publishers). Venezuela is near the 100,000 mark and the Philippines now a few hundred away from reaching 150,000. 64,834 showed up at the Memorial in India. Ireland increased by another 3%, now totaling a new peak of 5,281. Vietnam and Laos saw an increase also, however it will not be shown in the report.
There are 29 Countries where the work is restricted. The publisher increase this year for these countries is of 10.0%-- the highest in the last 9 years.