At one time, Jim Penton send me the number of JWs that go back as far as the 1920's. Unfortunately, I can't find them. At one time, I used this information to make a graph showing the year to year increases and decreases over a long period of time. There are a couple interesting facts revealed in this graph. The Witnesses had near zero growth from 1925 until 1935. The 1925 prediction and all the changes that Rutherford made really took its toll. They really did not start growing until Knorr took over and introduced sales amd marketing techniques and training. From the 1940's until today there was a slow steady decline in the increases, except for the temporary hysteria surrounding 1975, but this did not effect the overall trend. So, from the 1940's until today, they went from an average growth rate of about 15% to 1%.
Osarsif,
Do you have these numbers and if so, could you make a percent increase graph from them? I am on webtv, so I can't scan my graph and send it. If you don't have this information, I might ask my friend JAVA to scan it in for me.
I brought this back up, because I think the chart on the post above prepared by Osarsif is very interesting. From 1949 to 1968, there was a steady decline in the growth rate. Around 1968, the 1975 end times prediction began and the growth rate went up, followed by disappointment and poor numbers from 1976 to 1979. From 1980 to 1995 there was a pretty even growth rate of about 6%. For the past six years, there has been a steady decline in the growth rate.
Questions: Why is their growth rate declining? Why did this decline begin in 1995?
