Annual Report

by St George of England 88 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  slimboyfat

  Poland seems to be one of the major developed countries bucking the trend, with the number still falling at -1%.

  But also notice that the population of Poland is itself declining, and the ratio of JWs to the population has improved over the years. For example the ratio was 341 in 2021 and is down to 328 in 2024. This is a result of population decline in Poland rather than JW growth. The situation is similar in other East European countries with declining populations as well in Italy, Japan and Korea.
  

  It will indeed be interesting to see if this is a temporary boost caused by changes to reporting, and if it drops back in 2024-25 and 2025-26 service years.

  
  Yeah, it’s difficult to make valid comparisons when they keep changing the definitions all the time. Perhaps they’ll stop publishing statistics altogether at some point. In the meantime I still think that number of congregations is one of the most stable and meaningful indicators of growth or decline and by that measure JWs have declined over the past 10 years with a slight recovery in the last couple of years.
  
  
• 

  Hellothere

  There's a big surge of members in many Christians groups around Europe. Compared to them Watchtower increase in very small. Here in Sweden the church is growing in numbers. It's happening across Europe.

  https://www.riotimesonline.com/the-resurrection-of-faith-europes-christian-revival-defies-expectations-in-2024/
• 

  slimboyfat

  No, churches are in rapid decline in Europe and have been for decades. Religious decline in the Europe is one of the most dramatic and extensively documented social phenomena in the modern world. You could gather more convincing evidence that bigs are beginning to fly than Christian churches are growing in Europe. (I base these comments on extensive reading of the academic literature for decades and visiting literally hundreds of different churches in dozens of different denominations.)

  Among the many books on this trend, some of the best work is by Clive Field, Steve Bruce, Callum Brown, and Ronal Inglehart .

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Counting-Religion-Britain-1970-2020-Secularization/dp/0192849328/

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Religion-Demographic-Revolution-Secularisation-Religious/dp/1843837927/

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Dead-Secularization-Religion-Modern/dp/0631232753/
  

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Religions-Sudden-Decline-Whats-Causing/dp/0197547044/
  
• 

  Vidiot

  Hellothere - “There's a big surge of members in many Christians groups around Europe…”

  slimboyfat - “No, churches are in rapid decline in Europe and have been for decades…”

  Maybe it depends on the type of church.
  
• 

  slimboyfat

  Practically the only churches that are increasing in Europe are immigrant churches. Even if you focus on those few that are growing slightly I find it disingenuous. The fact is that many tens of millions have stopped going to church all over Europe. Finding a few isolated churches that mainly consist of new arrivals from Nigeria and Ghana that have grown by a few thousand are small by comparison and don’t contradict the overall trend.

  This is all documented in Field’s book about Britain in particlar. The big churches have lost millions of members: Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian. A few small Pentecostal churches have grown slightly. It’s like losing a wallet with £100 but looking on the bright side that you found a 50 pence on pavement. The overall trend is clear.
• 

  Beth Sarim

  Maybe its because religion,,,, is just dying in general
• 

  blondie

  I think member numbers does not really reflect the true amount of effort jws spend in "effective" preaching. One reason the WTS last September was pushing the "bible study" program. Or the quality of the members as to really reflecting their god's principles, including Jesus' human one. I gauge that I what I saw jw individuals actually said, in cases behind the closed doors. Do other religions do this, I wouldn't be surprised. The WTS has long said that numbers were not an indicator of a religion being the true one. They have changed their tune. (Of note, the WTS put forth a media link to this report. Something I haven't seen done except in recent years)

  This was posted on Google News on 12-30-2024

  https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/2024-Service-Year-Report-of-Jehovahs-Witnesses-Worldwide/
• 

  slimboyfat

  It’s an odd thing on this forum. Since I first joined in 2000 posters have continually insisted, year in year out, that JWs are in decline, yet between 2000 and now JWs increased from less than 6 million to over 9 million. At the same time, other churches have decreased massively across the western world, and yet some posters still insist other churches are doing better than JWs. It’s wishful thinking that allows of no empirical contradiction. Posters blithely state that black is white, increase is decline, year in and year out, regardless of the facts. I guess they’ll keep on doing so when there are ten million, eleven million, twelve million JWs, and meanwhile other churches are closing everywhere.

  Here are some of the figures for the main churches in the UK according to Clive Field.

  In 1970 there were 1,541,828 attending Anglican Churches in England. By 2020 this was down to 690,000.

  In 1990 there were 98,878 members of the Church in Wales. In 2018 this was down to 42,441.

  In 1970 there were 85,816 members of the Scottish Episcopal Church. In 2019 this was down to 27,585.

  In 1970 there were 617,018 members of the Methodist church. In 2020 this was down to 164,024.

  In 1970 there were 207,017 members of Baptist Churches. In 2020 this was down to 101,138.

  In 1973 there were 192,136 members of the United Reformed Church. In 2020 this was down to 43,208.

  In 1970 there were 20,752 members of the Quakers. In 2019 this was down to 12,498.

  In 1970 there were 108,064 members of the Presbyterian Church in Wales. In 2016 this was down to 20,632.

  In 1970 there were 1,154,211 members of the Church of Scotland. In 2020 this was down to 297,435.

  In 1970 attendance at Catholic mass in the England and Wales was 1,934,853. By 2020 this was down to 701,902.

  In 1970 attendance at Catholic mass in Scotland was 394,000. By 2018 this was down to 127,003.

  In 1970 there were 11,812 members of the Seventh-day Adventists. By 2020 this was up to 39,591.

  In 1970 there were 59,705 Jehovah’s Witnesses. By 2020 this was up to 130,904.

  They all declined sharply. The only exceptions are the SDAs and JWs.
• 

  blondie

  Good number, but I remember how attendance was counted at meetings and how it changed.

  First, people old enough to really understand what was going on, not small children or babies.

  ....as time went on it was finally changed to counting every person out of the womb, babies included, but not babies in the womb (haha). Also if someone came in the last minute of a meeting, they could be counted as if they had been there. So the numbers of attendees did go up.

  With the WTS now using unbaptized boys to do duties that only baptized men could do and only those in good standing, things as to counting has really changed. And mention that hours are no longer, most jws seen only have to put in writing that they did preach that month, not how much.
• 

  Touchofgrey

  Are other religions as meticulous in their weekly count as jws are ? When taking the count if people came in late we would add them to the total and include the ones on the phone link .

  The congregations I attended the only growth was born ins and when polish people came to the UK for work apart from that very few if any studies progressed to baptism.

  Young people are free to stop attending the church of their parents without loss of contact unlike jws,.

  Jws are a high control group that what probably keeps the numbers positive unlike other religions.