The Polish Effect on JW Europe statics

by Viva la Vida 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  Viva la Vida

  According to the 2017 Yearbook there was an important reduction of publishers in Poland (over 2,000) and small increases in countries like UK, Ireland, Germany and Norway. I thought that there might be something more than just people leaving JW in eastern Europe and joining in Western Europe, so I checked in jw.org the number of Polish language congregations outside of Poland. As you can see below Germany, the UK, Ireland and Norway have a lot of Polish congregations. Maybe a lot of people is leaving and others are just moving to a different country.

  In any case, if western European countries are enjoining small increases I think it is due to JW moving from somewhere and not because of new converts. What do you think?

  Austria 3

  Belgium 3

  Canada 1

  Denmark 1

  France 2

  Germany 62

  Greece 1

  Iceland 1

  Ireland 10

  Italy 1

  Lithuania 1

  Netherlands 1

  Norway 7

  Spain

  Sweden 4

  UK 47

  USA 8
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  punkofnice

  Dzien Dobry.

  I wondered about the loss of Jobos from other countries, not just Poland, that make up numbers and new congregations in other places. I was an elder in the Polish congregation and wondered about the same thing.

  I concluded that the WBT$ stats cannot be accurate, not just because they lie, either.

  In any event, I think the bOrganisation is gradually fizzling out.
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  darkspilver

  I'm sure that immigration is a factor.

  For the 2015 Service Year, the ratio in Poland was 1-in-315

  That is significantly more than the ratio in Britain at the same time of 1-in-457

  So actually it's 45% HIGHER in Poland
  

  They say there's 831,000 Poles in the UK

  That's the equivalent of 2,638 JWs

  Whereas the equivalent 831,000 British people would represent only 1,818 JWs

  Therefore a differance of 820 JWs
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  darkspilver

  This post from five years ago implies there where, at that time, only five Polish Congregations in the UK using data from the Charity Commissions.

  BUT, I think that is suspect - doing a search NOW for the words polish and jehovah returns only VERY limited results, while we know that today there are around 50 Polish Congregations in the UK, and each one should be a registered charity?
  
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  Vidiot

  re. the OP...

  I noticed something similar in my own (Canadian) hometown.

  When I left decades ago, there were 5 KHs serving 9 congregations. Now, there's just 2 KHs serving, at most, 5 congregations.

  I mentioned that to my still-in JW mom, and she said, "Yes, well, the Friends are moving away to other parts of the country for work..."

  I had to bite my tongue to keep from responding, "Well, shouldn't there be more Halls/congregations being made wherever they're moving, in order to accommodate them? How come we're not hearing about those?"
• 

  slimboyfat

  Yeah there's deinfitely a bit of that. But growth in Poland has been poor for nearly 20 years now, before they started emigrating in great numbers. Plus JWs are declining in most of Eastern Europe, Poland is just the most extreme example.

  What amazes me is that despite millions of immigrants to Germany the number of publishers has completely flatlined and the number of congregations has gone down. It looks like the beginning of real decline to me.
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  FadeToBlack

  From my own recent experience - I have seen several families move to Scotland from my wife's congregation. I was also happy to see a young couple from the English-speaking congregation move to Norway (wife was Norwegian). It mostly seems to be for economic reasons (or in a few cases, a chance to fade away and try to live a normal life).
  
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  steve2

  Meanwhile, humble old Denmark flat-lined back in 1984, over 32 years ago.

  Check the statistics out on reported numbers of active JWs in that "land" - forever hovering around 14,000, despite continued baptisms.