Are you not uppdated BOYs? here is the figures from yearbook 2002, US 945,689 higest level 979.637
self-professed numbers from surveys like this one are normally higher than publisher counts. a modicum of thought will reveal why.
In sweden who hade down spiral inn the latest year we see a turnurond inn jan radher bigg increase,from 22 to 23 000.
month-to-month numbers fluctuate and are not meaningful by themselves in determining actual growth. sweden, like all lands where JWs are established, is in the midst of a slow but steady decline.
re: The love of the greater number will cool off....
I think it may be possible that the WTS will use that tired old passage to rationalize things to the R&F. Didn't they do this in the late 70s when there was a decline in numbers too?
I believe the other rationalization they used at the time was the idea that the wheat was being separated from the chaff, that the organization was being cleansed, that like gold, they were being subjected to a refining process....
Yeah.... that's the spin they'll use..... "you too can be super refined gold if you just hang in there until all this apostate negative publicity crap goes away...."
I think that todays youth and the future will slowly outgrow religion. As society offers more interesting things to ocupy there minds religion will become less popular. I would like to see the stats in 10 years. But how accurate can they be and if one calls themself part of a religion and don`t practice it, some feel that they have to identify themselves with one because of family heritage.
