I know this research was posted by somebody earlier. But I just got around to looking at the details.
This is an overall summary of the PEW research:
http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
Jehovah's Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition. Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses.
If you go here:
http://religions.pewforum.org/portraits
Under demographics, do "Select a Tradition" and select "Jehovah's Witnesses".
No surprises here:
| Income Distribution of Jehovah's Witnesses | |
| 42% | Less than $30,000 |
| 23% | $30,000-$49,999 |
| 17% | $50,000-$74,999 |
| 9% | $75,000-$99,999 |
| 9% | $100,000+ |
Maritial Status has 1% Living with Partner. Seems odd for a 0-tolerance religion.
Education has 19% with less than high school and 51% high school graduate. But there's 22% with some college, 6% college graduate and 3% post-graduate. That seems higher than I would have thought. Either these are college educated people who came in (hard to believe there's a lot of educated people joining up), or they're not listening to the no college thing. I knew JWs who were OK with community college classes where you got specific job training and none of that devil-science stuff. So maybe the majority of this is community colleges.
On the child-front, 63% have NO children and 16% have 1 child. So you have 79% who aren't even producing offspring to replace them. Two adults producing one child is negative growth. 11% have 2 kids, 6% have 3 kids, and 4% have 4 or more. So there are some trying to increase the ranks. But, as seen above, only 37% of them will be JWs when they grow up.
So let's take that. Out of 100 adults, 16% have 1 kid (16 kids) + 11% have 2 kids (22 kids) + 6% have 3 kids (18 kids) and 4% have 4 or more (16+ kids). Those 100 people produce 72+ kids. It's probably even less than that because I'm sure a lot of those 100 adults are couples who's kids are counted twice. So, 72 kids of which 37% will be JWs. That's probably about 27 people. A loss of 73%, not to mention deaths and adults who leave. And from what I've seen of the preaching work, they aren't bringing that many in.
Things are looking bleak for them...