Membership statistics (LDS Church)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) releases membership, congregational, and related information on a regular basis. The latest membership information the church releases includes a count of membership, stakes, wards, branches, missions, temples, and FamilySearch Centers for the worldwide church and for individual countries and territories where the church is recognized. The latest information released was as of December 31, 2025.

Membership defined The LDS Church defines membership as a count of living individuals who: have been baptized and confirmed. are under age nine and have been blessed but not baptized. are not accountable because of intellectual disabilities, regardless of age. are unblessed children under age eight when: two member parents request it; or one member parent requests it and the nonmember parent gives permission.

After baptism, blessing, or parental request stated above, membership must be recorded and maintained by the church to have and keep membership. As with many religious organizations, official membership figures reflect individuals on record rather than measures of belief, participation, or self-identification as captured in surveys or census data.

Membership considerations In 2005, Peggy Fletcher Stack, longtime religion columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune, estimated that about one-third of the reported LDS membership was "active" (i.e., regularly attending church services and participating in other expected meetings and obligations).Peggy Fletcher Stack (2005). Keeping members a challenge for LDS church, The Salt Lake Tribune, July 26, 2005; accessed 20 December 2017 In 2005, this would have amounted to approximately 4 million active members among a worldwide LDS population of 12 million. Active membership varied from a high of 40 to 50 percent in congregations in North America and the Pacific Islands, to a low of about 25 percent in Latin America. Fletcher Stack's data was compiled from several sources, including a 2001 survey of religious affiliation by scholars at City University of New York and a demographer at LDS-owned Brigham Young University.

In 2001, sociologist Armand Mauss estimated that about 50 percent of LDS converts in the US stopped attending church within a year of baptism, while outside the US the rate was about 70 percent.Stacy Willis (2001). Mormon Church is funding its future, The Las Vegas Sun; accessed 20 December 2017

More recent survey data complicates this picture. Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) — the first update to Pew's landscape survey since 2014 — found that Latter-day Saints report the highest rate of monthly in-person religious attendance (76%) of any U.S. religious tradition surveyed, ahead of evangelical Protestants (60%), Muslim Americans and members of historically Black Protestant churches (46% each), Catholics (40%), mainline Protestants (34%), and the national average of 33%. When online and televised religious participation is included alongside in-person attendance, 80% of Latter-day Saints report monthly participation, compared with 71% of evangelical Protestants and a 40% national average. Latter-day Saints also report the highest rate of personal congregational membership of any tradition surveyed (86%), compared with 61% of evangelical Protestants, 56% of members of historically Black Protestant churches, and 37% of U.S. adults overall.

Pew's broader 2023–24 RLS also found that Christianity as a whole continues to lose more adherents than it gains through religious switching, and that the share of Americans identifying as Christian has been relatively stable since 2019 after declining sharply from 2007 to 2019; the share of Americans identifying as Latter-day Saints specifically has held roughly steady at around 2% since 2007.

Independent research also cautions that self-reported religious attendance — the kind captured in surveys like Pew's — tends to run well above attendance measured through independent observation, a pattern found across every religious tradition studied, including the LDS Church. A 2024 University of Chicago Becker Friedman Institute study by economist Devin Pope used smartphone geolocation data for over two million Americans in 2019 to estimate actual, rather than self-reported, worship attendance. The study found that only about 5% of Americans attend religious services in a typical week, compared with roughly 22% who report doing so in surveys.

The study's findings were broken out by tradition. Observed weekly attendance among Latter-day Saints was about 14–15%, roughly triple the national average and, in raw numbers, slightly higher than observed weekly Catholic attendance nationwide despite Catholics outnumbering Latter-day Saints roughly 14 to 1. Latter-day Saint congregations also had among the longest average service durations (115 minutes) and the lowest income diversity among co-congregants of the traditions studied.

+ Self-reported vs. observed religious attendance, by tradition Tradition Self-reported attendance (Pew RLS, 2023–24) Observed weekly attendance (Pope/BFI, 2024) Latter-day Saints 76% (monthly, in person) ~14–15% (weekly) Evangelical Protestants 60% (monthly, in person) ~7% of Protestants overall (weekly) Catholics 40% (monthly, in person) ~2% (weekly) All U.S. adults 33% (monthly) / 25% (weekly) ~5% (weekly)

The two studies use different attendance thresholds — Pew's headline figures are monthly self-reports, while Pope's cellphone-based figures measure observed weekly attendance — so the table above contrasts claimed regular practice against an independently observed weekly rate rather than providing a strict like-for-like ratio. Even so, the gap between self-reported and independently measured attendance is not specific to the LDS Church; every tradition Pope measured showed some degree of self-report inflation, and Catholics showed the steepest proportional gap of the three named traditions. This is a relevant caveat when interpreting any denomination's self-reported activity rate, including the figures above.

Countries The tables on this section represents Latter-day Saint membership, as reported by the Church, as of December 31, 2025. Except where indicated, general population figures are based on population estimates (primarily for 2025). Percentages of LDS members were calculated with this information. The link under the names of each country, territory, etc. corresponds to brief LDS history and statistical information for that particular area.

Congregations Country Area Temples Missions Districts Stakes Congregations Wards Branches Total

*There are several areas that cover the US. This includes United States Central, United States Northeast, North America Southeast, North America Southwest, North America West, and Utah areas. Bermuda is in the North America Northeast area.

Members and growth See Membership defined for membership definition. Country Area

*There are several areas that cover the US and Canada. This includes North America Central, North America Northeast, North America Southeast, North America Southwest, North America West, and Utah areas. Bermuda is in the North America Northeast area.

Distribution maps Membership

Percent members

Congregations

Areas

Areas of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints outside US and Canada.Areas of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the US and Canada.

Temples

Membership statistics (LDS Church)

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