Just Released:2014 Worldwide Service Year Report of Jehovah's Witnesses

by steve2 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  steve2

  In the last day or so, the 2015 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses has been available on JW.org. 

  Broadly speaking, results are pretty ho-hum - except to note a huge increase in memorial attendances for 2014, but still shy of 20 million. This is a big increase over the previous all-time-high year of 2011 by several hundred thousand.

  Equally noteworthy is the continued increase on the number of partakers at the Memorial, hitting more than 14,000. Jw facts has a separate thread on that aspect.

  
  

  A quick perusal of the report shows that the bulk of the bigger increases in publishers, numbers baptized and memorial attendances are in third world countries. A few western countries have managed more than 2% growth in average publisher numbers, but most of them hang around 1 percent or less. 

  With the ever-reducing witnessing criteria for pioneering, that area still shows signs of life, with the caveat that it is hard to gauge increases in a role that continues to require less and less of pioneers.

  Given the touted significance of the centenary of 1914, a concerted push was made to hammer home the need to keep promoting jw.org. It will be fascinating to see how the spluttering growth of JWs in the western world pans out.

  Oh, growth of JWs in Brazil seems to have reduced in recent years, reporting relatively smaller percentage growths over two years now. Japan continues to slide in publisher numbers - there were more active witnesses in Japan ten years ago than currently.  
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  insidetheKH

  the aging population in Japan is shrinking for some years now and will continue to do so. Since religious groups reflect the demographics of their society they will shrink too.
  

  
  

  The aging of Japan is thought to outweigh all other nations, as the country is purported to have the highest proportion of elderly citizens; 33.0% are above age 60, 25.9% are aged 65 or above, 12.5% aged 75 or above, as of September 2014.
  

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan
  
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  Half banana

  inside the KH: You have it exactly the wrong way round, the elderly population is increasing, not shrinking.............The decline of JWs in Japan has little connection with the fact that the population is not dying off as early as happens in other countries.This fact should have kept their numbers higher had they remained in!

  The decline in the membership of the WT org is the consequence that the people of this socially and technologically advanced land have realised that the Watchtower dream is not the realistic answer to the problems of being human.

  In this regard, where enlightened Japan leads... the western world will follow... (thank goodness!)
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  insidetheKH

  @banana what are you trying to tell me?

  
  

  the population of Japan is shrinking rapidly (since 2007) and so is the number of JW's since the group is a reflection of the demographics seen in society

  
  

  see this chart that shows the decline of the japanese population and future projection

  
  

  
  

  

  
  
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  insidetheKH

  @banana

  
  

  Based on the latest data from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan's population will keep declining by about one million people every year in the coming decades, which will leave Japan with a population of 86 million in 2060.[5] By that time, more than 40% of the population is expected to be over age 65.[6] In 2012, the population had for six consecutive years declined by 212,000, the largest drop on record since 1947 and also a record low of 1.03 million births.[7] In 2014, a new record of population drop happened with 268,000 people.[8] In 2013, more than 20 percent of the population are age 65 and over.[9]
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  Half banana

  @Inside, you said " the aging population is shrinking" sorry friend but its increasing. Your wiki figures show that Japan has the largest percentage of 'ageing' or elderly people, in the world.The general population stats however show it to be on a plateau of 127/128 million for the last eleven years with every likely-hood of it reducing rapidly in the future but it has not done so up until now. The blue line on the graph represents the projected population numbers.

  My comment with a little knowledge of that country is that JW belief no longer answers people's needs, high control religious cults are less fashionable there these days.
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  insidetheKH

  @banana  the population of japan is aging & the total population is shrinking  since 2007 and will continue to do so for the next century. a drop of 1 milliion a year is expected for the next decades
  

  One can only expect the same kind of problems for a religous group like the Jehovah's witnesses since they represent the demographics of the society. You agree with me that Japan has the largest percentage of ageing people right? Well, the same goes for the Japanese Witness group.
  

   After 2005 things started to change and will result in an ultimate free fall

  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan#Vital_statistics
  

  The decline in Japanese Witnesses is a normal reflection of the overall decline in the population.

  For example :
  

  Nr of Average publishers in 2009  217,530

  Nr of Average publishers in 2014  215 294
  

  Net decline 2236 publishers over a period of 5 years that is a decline of only about 0.2 percent per year

  It has nothing to do with technology, being fashionable, or beliefs that answer peoples needs or not. The decline can be simply explained by looking at the demographic information of the country and the demographic behaviour in groups like the witnesses (for example within JW's  less people decide to get kids because of this system/kingdom interests)