Blueblades posted the 2003 Service Year Report. The Watchtower Society makes it appear that they grew 2.2% (which is lower than some of their earlier percentages) ... but the way they present the data, does not reveal the truth. [Note: The chart below is the smallest I could get it ... sorry for the inconvenience. It is also awkward to scroll around ... so you may want to copy and paste onto your word processor to get a closer look at the real growth.]
Of the average Publishers, the Watchtower Society fails to account for those who died, were DF/DA or simply left the organization. When we take away those numbers, their growth is closer to 1%. How do we arrive at that number? Easy: The total baptized in 2003 is 258,845 (which is lower for 2003) then the JWs should be larger by that amount, less the death rate ... so they should be about 204,000 more in average Publishers. Here is a way to look at it: 6,184,046 avg. less 2.2% means that 2002 must have been 6,050,926 (1.022 x 6,050,926 = 6,184,046).
Where are the 125,725? The actual increase is 133,120 ( 6,184,046 less 6,050,926 ) ... yet, 258,845 were baptized. Where are the other 125,725 JW Publishers? Since the Watchtower Society says its old and infirm are also active Publishers, putting in at least 15 minutes per month ... so as these die, they would affect the reduction in average Publishers. (The truth is many if not most of these are no longer active when they die, and so are not really part of the total count ... which means that I should not use their number ... but for conservatism, that is to be safe in my assessments, I will count them:
The death rate has been fairly stable at 0.9% per 1,000 for a long time ... take 6,050,926 less 0.9% (0.009) death of active JWs in 2003 ... would result in 54,458 JWs departing this life. Subtract this from the 125,725 and you still have 71,267 who must have been DF/DA or simply left the organization. This is just for one year ...
So of the 258,845 baptized, a whopping 27.5% leave the religion. If you go back through to the 1950s, using the Watchtower's own Yearbooks, you can calculate this each year, subtracting the death rate ... and you will see that there are now at least 2,000,000 former BAPTIZED JWs ... this does not count the many millions who were raised in or around the religion, or studied, or showed interest over the last 50 years ... if you count them in, then the total leaving the religion is more likely 4 million to 5 million former associates or baptized members of the JWs.
So again where have they all gone? Either to heaven, hell, the grave, or to JWD and other fine boards ... or simply moved on into a free life full of opportunity.
Here is the comparison chart:
JW DATA COMPARISON |