by steve2 22 Replies latest jw friends
steve2 - yes, I often wonder about what's going on in the minds of those who like to make positive comments about the Watchtower without balancing it with some accurate perspective to show both sides of the coin. I can really only guess. I think some people like to go for the "shock factor" and provoke debate, but I don't think this helps indoctrinated lurkers who may pounce on a positive statement as evidence to placate their cognitive dissonance and then switch off to everything else.
Cedars
On the plus side for JWs, they do have nearly double the number of people declaring themselves as Witnesses in Brazil than are claimed as publishers, whereas the SDA figure is much closer to their official membership. If that is a general pattern across the globe them the two churches are probably very similar in size, rather than the SDA church being bigger as their respective internal statistics would suggest.
Good list moggy lover. SDA's are also big on education, so that could be added to the comparison. There is a wiki page with a list of colleges and universities they own around the world.
Cedars:
I got my stats from the official SDA web page: www.adventist.org/world-church/facts-and figures/index/html
To treat the growth/decline in the USA I tried to be objective by reading both the following sites, the first is positive, the second negative:
1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-03-08-Adventists 17 ST N.htm
2. "Future trends in the SDA Church": by Tom Norris at:
all.experts.com/q/Seventh-Day-Adventists-213/2011
steve2: Thanks, mate.
SBF: Yes that is true. However, I was more interested in presenting the medical mission field that the SDAs run because of my familiarity with it. But it is true that they are big on education. I did see the number of these they maintain world wide but did not record it. I know they do run a university site in Avondale, New South Wales, here in Aussie, that teaches up to post graduate level in most disciplines of study.
Incidently, I appear to have goofed in one area. Under number 4, the number of hospitals and sanitariums run by the SDAs worldwide, the number is actually 173, not 137.
On the plus side for JWs, they do have nearly double the number of people declaring themselves as Witnesses in Brazil than are claimed as publishers, whereas the SDA figure is much closer to their official membership
True, slimboyfat. In New Zealand, the official census figures for JWs have usually been up to two-thirds higher than the official Watchtower yearly figures, outstripping even peak publishers - although figures I had on hand showed that there is now a downward trend in the five-yearly census figures for self-identified JWs (I will need to go back to the Census data to get exact figures).
There has also been something of a fits-and-starts appearance to JW publisher growth in New Zealand since the mid-1990s, (1995: peak 13,340) hovering around the 13,000s over more than 10 years and only last year peaking at 14,507 but the average well within the 13,000s. I think this kind of faltering pattern is evident in many western, developed countries. Numbers baptized has also plummeted throughout the 2000s and my eagle-eye seldom sees them out preaching as often as they once did.
13340 |
13168 |
13427 |
14382 |
14507 |
I think sometimes there can be subtle differences in the way censuses are worded and gathered that can produce their own fluctuations within overall patterns. Plus occasionally churches themselves can make a special effort to get their members to declare themselves. I remember reading that the Mormon church did this in Peru because they were worried about the figure being too low. They sent missionaries around all their inactive members to encourage them to declare themselves as Mormons.
The number of languages
The 197 figure is erroneous.
On their own website, this figure is given:
«540—Languages in which we publish Bibles and Bible-based literature»
Adventists do alot better in Africa and in southeast Asia. No doubt that people are attacted to their schools, hospitals and charities.
...steve2, it is interesting to know that JWs have better growth and higher literacy rates in Mexico than SDAs:
| 2000 | 2010 | Increase | Literacy Rate (2010) | |
| Jehovah's Witnesses | 1,057,736 | 1,500,984 | 41.9% | 95% |
| Latter Day Saints | 205,229 | 302,020 | 47.2% | 97% |
| Seventh-Day Adventists | 488,945 | 629,115 | 28.7% | 87% |
On the cladistic tree JW's are basically adventists anyhow.
Total Printed of All Editions of New World Translation: 158,709,727 Copies
Well whoopy ding. No one person in the world will be able to plead ignorance of the true god Jehobah.
