This started as a reply to another post, but I feel it deserves a spin off.
Did you ever noticed the abysmal difference in success the JWs are getting between the Developed Countries and the Less Developed Countries of the world?.
The numbers I present were tabulated using as the only criteria the ?development? of countries. Some of the included are members of the European Union, USA, Canada, Australia Japan, Russia, South Africa and many others that have strong economies and present favorable conditions for education and economic prosperity for their citizens. In total 38 countries were selected (included also were Brazil and Mexico; Because of the massive numbers of JWS in those countries I was inclined to include them)
Total publishers in developed countries (DC) in 2004: 3,947,290 or 62.6%
Total Publishers in less developed countries (LDC) in 2004: 2,361,051 or 37.4%
Total pubs in DC in 2003: 3,886,290 or 62.8%
Total pubs in LDC. countries in 2003: 2,297,756 or 37.2%
As you can see the DCs are losing ground to the LDCs
Consider the % of growth:
DC 2004: 1.57%
LDC 2004: 2.75%
But there is a catch
Let?s move Brazil and Mexico off the DCs list and into the LDC?s one:
DC % of growth without BRA & MEX: 0.53%
LDC% of growth with BRA & MEX included: 3.20%
Brazil and Mexico were directly responsible for 43,284 new JWs or 0.73% of the total 2.00% of growth in the world!!! Their growth alone is of than 4.09%
So it is pretty obvious that the emphasis shall be placed in cost reducing strategies since these countries in development require simpler education tools for conversion and are yielding the most results anyway? As JWs move to less developed countries the $$$ will flow less over time.
As an interesting fact these countries were selected ?randomly? (by just recognizing the name of the country as a developed one and adding Bra & Mex) and besides those two aforementioned countries the % of growth records among DC are: Russia (4.79%, +6,000), Turkey (2.66%, +44) Macedonia (2.61%, +27), Ireland (1.95%, +91), South Africa (1.38%, +994) & Spain (1.14%, +1,116). Only Russia shows both significant % and individual count with 6,000 new JWs. Others have minimal growth <100 besides Spain and South Africa. Maybe countries that either have ongoing wars or are pretty influenced by Main Religions are more productive. Perhaps the gap between classes may explain the growth on some of these (maybe the cultic experts on the board can expand on that) Besides these five countries all the other developed countries show less that 1%, nearly statistical 0 or way below?
What do you think? Is this the reason of all the cost saving efforts?