2011 Watchtower publisher statistics with analysis

by jwfacts 220 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  slimboyfat

  I firmly believe that if they were measuring today exactly what they were measuring 12 years ago, you would see a decline.

  I am not so sure. The 15 minute rule was introduced, what, like nearly a decade ago. Just how long exactly can it go on being blamed for increases? Logically it would have resulted in a one time increase. not recurring year on year gains indefinitely. And how many inactive parents are there having studies with their children anyway? I am not sure I understand this point.

  My own congregation seems to be on a slow decline, and that despite a few recent converts.

  It would be good to have some independent check on the number of Witnesses in the UK, but unfortunately the census question on religion in the UK was pretty useless.
• 

  dropoffyourkeylee

  I think that another measure we are not looking at enough is the number of congregations. I don't have access to the past years reports (had a big bonfire with all my old literature, including the yearbooks - what fun!), but I would be interested in the percent increase in number of congregations is similar to the reported percent increase in publishers
• 

  jwfacts

  dropoffyourkeylee - good question. Since 2007, the number of congregations have been growing by between 1.82% and 2.05% each year. This is in line with the increase in average publishers of around 2%. The average congregation size is only 66 people, which seems very small compared to what we have in Australia.
• 

  davidl7

  slimboyfat

  "The numbers for individual countries are always rounded to the nearest figure, whether that's up or down, there's nothing remarkable about that.

  For example the 1.4% increase in Argentina is rounded down to 1% in the table."

  Exactly.
• 

  davidl7

  JWFacts said:

  "One thing revealing in breaking down the statistics is that there seems to have been a number of faded/inactive ones that have started going again over the last 3 years. There are also almost record numbers of hours preaching per JW. It shows how strong the guilt and indoctrination are. Yet with all that extra preaching, there is no increase in growth or baptisms. It seems that the greatest influence the internet is having has been in preventing people joining."

  What do you mean? There was an increase in membership...in the past 4 years the WCC in it's publication of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches has shown that in the US that the Jehovah's Christian Witnesses has been the fastest growing group. And that figure is based on the extremely conservative method that the WT uses to count it members...it only counts those that have reported their monthly ministry activity of preaching the good news of God's Kingdom in the hands of his Son, Jesus Christ. It does not include the even much faster growing number of those studying with the Witnesses and actively attending the KH meeting..some of who are now preaching, but not reporting. Meanwhile, the other churches that have shown increases included the Catholic Church (with less than a 1% increase last year and the Mormons with barely a 2 percent increase last year)...and how do those churches count their members...they have a more generous way of counting their members. The Catholic church counts members that were mainly baptized as babies, even though close to 70% of those no longer consider themselves to be Catholic or are not active Catholics...same is true with the Mormons...

  I am not sure what mean that the Internet is preventing people from joining the true Christian Congregation...since there has been good enough increases worldwide...there has always been anti-Witness information out there, even before the Internet....I know friends who were given a library of books prior to the Internet...it may have delayed some from accepting the Truth...but most eventually came to the conclusion that the Chrstian Congregation of Jehovah' Witnesses represent the 1st century Christianity as taught by Jesus and his apostles, and have decided to join the Witnesses in spreading the truth about Jehovah, Jesus and the Kingdom of God. The WT and other Witness apologist have set-up their own Websites in response to the vicious negative anti-Witness sites that have been set-up. That way many people can hear the Witness point of view, and those who are open minded and can think spiritually, will know that we teach the truth of the Bible.
• 

  davidl7

  JW Facts wrote in part:"Someone just brought to my attention that the US growth is not as good as it has been made out to be.

  Please note,,Hawaii is not listed separately now. So, in 2010, avg. pubs for U.S. was 1,115,786 and Hawaii showed 8,531. Combined comes to 1,124,317. Now, U.S. (which would include Hawaii) is now avg pubs 1,145,723. So would be 1.9% increase

  Amazing at how they keep coming up with new ways to doctor the figures to look better that they are. Reducing the requirement for reporting to just 15 minutes a month, reducing the number of hours to be counted as a pioneer and auxiliary pioneer, and now this combining of figures. "

  But wouldn't adding Hawaii be more accurate as a complete US figure? The WCC Yearbook always included the Hawaii and Alaska figures since all the other churches don't list those states seperately, the WCC added them to get the complete total figure. I don't think it has nothing to do with make the figures "better [then] they are." It just a complete accurate number...that's all.
• 

  davidl7

  Jehovahsheep wrote " only bibilcally illiterate like i was are the ones getting baptized.."

  Well, I know several individuals, including professors who teach NT Greek, former pastors, former priests, former deacons, who are now Jehovah's Witnesses...some of them have Masters in Divinity...and yet they came to the conclusion that the Jehovah's Christian Witnesses teach the truth of the bible...I believe only those who do not want to believe the truth of the Bible are the ones that leave...In spite of the fact that there are some Witnesses that are highly educated (some with PHD degrees and few are college professors themselves)m it does not matter what level of education one has...God does not require a high level of education in order for one to learn the truth about Him and his Son Jesus Christ...salvation does not require education, it require faith in Jesus Christ as God's only begotten Son and knowing the the only true God, the Father. (John 3:16, 36; John 17:3; Ephe. 1:17; 1 John 4:4-14). Even the apostles were said to be ulettered or uneducated men:

  Acts 4:13

  English Standard Version (ESV)

  13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
• 

  davidl7

  slimfatboy wrote:

  "I am not so sure. The 15 minute rule was introduced, what, like nearly a decade ago. Just how long exactly can it go on being blamed for increases? Logically it would have resulted in a one time increase. not recurring year on year gains indefinitely. And how many inactive parents are there having studies with their children anyway? I am not sure I understand this point.

  My own congregation seems to be on a slow decline, and that despite a few recent converts.

  It would be good to have some independent check on the number of Witnesses in the UK, but unfortunately the census question on religion in the UK was pretty useless."

  I agree to a certain extent...but even before that so-called 15-minute rule...Witnesses were always told to report what they preached no matter how small...the 15-minute rule in effect was not something new...actually, if the Witnesses want to show their REAL INCREASE in number, they would include the figures of all those that regularly attend and participate in their meetings...that would definately more than double the membership and would be on par with the way other churches count their members.
• 

  AllTimeJeff

  First off, thanks JWFacts. For those who want real information on Jehovah's Witnesses, his site, along with freeminds.org are two of the best sites out there for non sensationalistic info and facts on JW's.

  I will always be curious about the numbers, but for me it is a passing curiosity at this point.

  I am one who believes that JW's will evolve for their own self preservation. Current doctrine be damned. I don't think that it matters how they count members today either. It will change.

  Compared to the 1980's, the growth over the last 15 years has been relatively incremental. To say nothing of the well known fact that JW's lose members by the hundreds of thousands each year.

  As the saying goes, the two biggest liars in the world are politicians and statistics. Read into them what you will. I read that over 7,000,000 are still active within the JW framework.

  I think it is telling that the amount of partakers has dramatically risen. This tells me that the actual influence and control that the GB has over their flock is in fact lessening, regardless of who they are able to get to turn in a FS report once a year.
• 

  slimboyfat

  But wouldn't adding Hawaii be more accurate as a complete US figure?

  Yeah that's fine, but why report it as if it was an increase? It would have been easy enough to add the figures together, and work out the increase over the previous year of the two areas combined over both periods. In fact I think that is what they did when they added Alaska, so there is a precedent.

  Personally I am inclined blame incompetence rather than mendacity, but you never know.

  I am open to the idea that JWs may continue to grow well, although I would prefer if they declined, or better still imploded in some dramatic fashion. But regardless of the way the numbers go the fact nevertheless remains that JWs teach a lot of nonsense that many rightly find insulting to their sense of ethics/aesthetics as well as their intelligence.