usa 2001 stats

by jeffory 21 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  jeffory

  avg. pubs in 2001 service year[ usa] 945,689 compared to 945,000 avg. in 2000.
  total baptized in 2001 service year 28,239 compared to the 28,475 in 2000.
• 

  battman

  Thanks for the stats. Wonder what the activity
  has been like in the last 7 weeks.

  battman
• 

  openminded

  I wonder what percentage of the 28,239 baptized were children of baptized members.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  Hi, Jeffory

  Off the top of my head, I’m pretty sure your numbers of average pubs for service years 2000 and 2001 are correct, but I believe your figures for baptisms in year 2000 are off. Compared to 2000, baptisms for year 2001 were less, but I believe they were significantly less than your numbers indicate. I think the actual margin is nearer to 2,000-3,000.

  Interestingly, as a measure of growth, averaged over the past 10 years, the ratio of JW pubs in the USA to population has declined. This decline is prominent during the past 3 years. If memory serves me right, as a ratio, the 2001 year shows about 25,000 less publishers to population as was indicated in 1992 stats.
• 

  metatron

  While these figures suggest stagnation, keep in mind that they
  are inherently bogus to a huge degree.

  Why?

  Consider baptisms: the majority of these may well be Witness kids
  most of whom likely will walk away from the 'truth'. Indeed, many
  elders can tell you stories about kids getting df'd shortly
  after baptism. The Society dropped all thought of invalid
  baptisms some time ago because the situation was a mess.

  And publishers? The only reason you don't see a real decline
  in the US is the influx of Hispanics (compare Canada and Alaska).
  The number of people harassed into reporting some time is likely
  huge too - remember, all you have to do REPORT time, whether you
  actually did anything or not. Consider the swing of over 100,000
  publishers counted a couple years ago from one month to the next
  when the Society demanded a maximum effort. This was the two
  month period when they got over 1 million pubs as a peak.

  metatron
• 

  jeffory

  marvin,

  oops, you're right, the usa 2000 service year total baptism's were 30,290.
  It does make the drop in baptism's even steeper for the 2001 service year, as you pointed out, over 2000 down.
  thank's for the correction. jeffory
• 

  fodeja

  Ah, so the US decline in baptism is still alive and well.

  It'll be interesting to see whether this is the case for Europe, too. IIRC, the baptism decrease started much earlier there (in some Western European countries, baptism has dropped about two thirds(!) in the past decade - for instance, Denmark, Norway, France, Austria...).

  I generally think that the baptism figures are more interesting to gauge trends than the avg. publishers. After all (as metatron pointed out), it's easy to write down a couple of numbers on a piece of paper. Memorial attendance figures are pretty much worthless. Baptism, however, is a clear sign of commitment. At least more so than the other statistics.

  f.
• 

  RunningMan

  The baptism decline in Canada is almost exactly the same (proportionately)
  as that in the U. S.

  In 2000, the baptisms were just over 2,300. In 2001, the baptisms are just over
  2,100 - a decrease of 200, or 9%. It's a long way from the peak of 5,600 a few
  years ago.
• 

  Simon

  compared to other evangelical type religions that are growing much faster they must be disappointed (and worried) with these figures
• 

  fodeja

  compared to other evangelical type religions that are growing much faster they must be disappointed (and worried) with these figures

  The higher-ups, maybe. Rank and file JWs still seem to think that their religion is at the focus of public attention and growing like crazy. At least that's what the JWs that I know seem to think. Nevermind that they have the sad figures in black on white right in the mags.

  IMHO, the only way the decline could be stopped would be "new light" on contraceptives.

  f.