USA JW statistics: Publishers up, Pioneeers down

by truthseeker 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  truthseeker

  It is evident that publishers are growing in the US branch, but pioneers have not kept pace.

  Consider the KM reports from January this year:

  2002/03 service year (Pubs include all pioneers)

  Sep - Pubs: 971,346 Pioneers: 88,341

  Oct - Pubs: 972,450 Pioneers: 91,101

  Nov - Pubs: 973,067 Pioneers: 89,083

  Dec - Pubs: 895,241 Pioneers: 90,654

  Jan - Pubs: 986,419 Pioneers: 89,325

  Feb - Pubs: 983,963 Pioneers: 89,251

  Mar - Pubs: 1,003,431 Pioneers: 87,878

  Apr - Pubs: 991,499 Pioneers: 87,377

  May - Pubs: 992,412 Pioneers: 86,884

  Jun - Pubs: 963,000 Pioneers: 84,900

  figures for Jun are approximates as I only glanced at the Sep KM and do not have it yet.

  But there is a clear indication that despite all the talks to do more and pioneer, and the Aug KM talk on

  'the blessings of the pioneer ministry' there is no increase in pioneer publishers for 2003.

  What about the number of reg pioneers for the 2001/02 service year?

  2001 Sep: 88,765

  Oct:90,200

  Nov: 90,542

  Dec:89,808

  2002 Jan: 89,007

  Feb: 88,617

  Mar: 88,689

  Apr: 86,296

  May: 85,448

  June: 85,242

  July: 83,165

  Aug: 86,737

  from these figures, it seems, that pioneer is just not on peoples minds.
• 

  iiz2cool

  And the decrease shows that it's not only the hour requirement that was an obstacle to pioneering. The requirement was lowered from 90 hours a month to 70 a few years back, but the numbers are still decreasing. But then, when I pioneered many were lying about the number of hours they got anyway. I did sometimes. I guess there's just less interest in pioneering now, or maybe more people are seeing the org for what it is.

  I'd be interested in seeing some other statistics. Too bad they're not available. Something like:

  How many minutes per hour of service time are spent in coffee shops?

  What percentage of the JW's that leave every year become members of this board?

  What percentage of JW's really believe in the org compared to the number that are in because they feel trapped?

  Walter
• 

  Emma

  I'm wondering how much of the increase is the next generation - peoples kids - beginning to report.
• 

  ozziepost

  Still too bloody many!
• 

  Joker10

  thanks for the stats, TruthSeeker. It appears that the December figure is incorrect. The number of publishers reporting was of 1,004,736
• 

  benext

  What are the average hours for publishers? The pioneers would always stand on the corner until the meeting for field service began because they were told their time would be continous if they only stopped for 15 minutes.
• 

  stillajwexelder

  I do not put too much empahsis on these monthly figures myself -- Pattern looks normal -- usually the August figures are highest (Peak Publishers) they then tend to drop throughout the year with possible surges in March/April -- memorial lseason and auxilliary pioneer campaigns etc. The interesting figure and the one that means most to me is the average publishers thru the year -- Usually posted in Janaury 1st Watchtower -- you might see this figure as essentially static. Last August 2002 I think the peak pub figure was over 1000000 for the USA. If you base your discussion on averages it is much more revealing -- trend has been down in publishers since 1994/95 (generation teaching) and especially in Europe/Japan etc.

  You are absolutely correct to observe a downward trend in pioneers - again a trend seen over most of the world-- nothing to do with the hour requirement - the average witness expected armageddon a long time ago and it just aint come -- so they are doing less and feeling let-down -- look at most countries on total hours also -- that trend is also downwards
• 

  shotgun

  How can the number of publishers jump as much as 15,000 from one month to the next?

  I thought if you did not report for one month you had to report for 6 consecutive months to be considered an active publisher again?

  Or is that a scare tactic used on Canadians only?
• 

  stillajwexelder

  If someone does not report one month or even two or three months the secratary will chase them up -- especially at the end of the service year in August -- and they can then put a report in for that month and the thre previous months -- this will be counted as 4 publishers that month - I kid you not -- trust me on this one -- that is why I use the year end average publishers -- you can not really tell what is going on with month by month figures -- Randy always does good year end summaries with graphs if you go to www.freeminds.org
• 

  shotgun

  Now I don't feel so bad about cheating on my reports..they do it too!