3 new stakes in May (Tonga, TX, AZ)

The church added a stake in Tonga. There are now 18 stakes in Tonga and 1 temple. This is the First stake created in Tonga since 2008.  Tonga is nearly 50% LDS, the highest percent of any Nation. By contrast, El Salvador also has 18 stakes, but is only 1.4% LDS. While there are 176 islands making up Tonga, 70% of the 101,000 citizens live on the main island of Tongatapu, which is only about 18 miles across.

The church added a stake in Texas. There are now 58 stakes in Texas and 4 temples. This is the second stake created in Texas in 2012.  (WA has 56 stakes, AZ has 92 - and ID has 126, CA 157, UT 559)
There are now 1,496 stakes in the US and 1,471 outside of the US.

The Gilbert AZ Highland stake split into an East and West Stake.  The Gilbert, Arizona Temple is under construction, and should be completed in 2013 as the nearby Mesa Temple is very busy. There are now 92 Stakes in Arizona.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/construction/


19. Heath Texas - May 20th, 2012
20. Nuku'alofa Tonga Matahau - May 20th, 2012
21. Gilbert Arizona Highland West - May 20th, 2012

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/

Rank	Country:	% LDS	Region
1	Tonga	45.2%	So. Pacific
2	Samoa (Western)	31.0%	So. Pacific
3	Amer. Samoa	22.5%	So. Pacific
4	Kiribati	11.9%	So. Pacific
5	French Polynesia	7.1%	So. Pacific
6	Marshall Islands	7.1%	So. Pacific
7	Cook Islands	6.7%	So. Pacific
8	Micronesia	3.5%	So. Pacific
9	Chile	3.3%	So. Amer.
10	Uruguay	2.6%	So. Amer.
11	New Zealand	2.4%	So. Pacific
12	Untied States	2.0%	US
13	Vanuatu	1.7%	So. Pacific
14	Honduras	1.7%	Cent. Amer.
15	Bolivia	1.7%	So. Amer.
16	Guatemala	1.6%	Cent. Amer.
17	Fiji	1.6%	So. Pacific
18	Cape Verde	1.6%	Africa
19	Peru	1.6%	So. Amer.
20	El Salvador	1.4%	Cent. Amer.

Cape Verde's 1st stake, Indonesia its 2nd

The LDS Church created two new stakes this week. The first ever in Cape Verde, Africa, hundreds of miles off the West Coast, & South of the Canary Islands (Spain) and many many miles from the nearest branches in Sierra Leone or the nearest stake in Ivory Coast. The closest temple is in Ghana 2,800 miles away. Cape Verde is the 78th Nation to have a stake created in it.  United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, & Russia were added in 2011. Uganda and Guam in 2010.

A second stake was also created in Surakarta Indonesia, joining the Jakarta Indonesia stake created last year. 18 stakes have been created in 2012 through April. Only 3 in the United States.

There are now 2,962 stakes

17. Praia Cape Verde - April 29th, 2012

18. Surakarta Indonesia - April 29th, 2012


http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/

My maps:

Norway and Ghana (2) add more stakes in April

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the creation of three new stakes:


14. Accra Ghana Kaneshie - April 22nd, 2012
15. Accra Ghana Tesano - April 22nd, 2012
16. Drammen Norway - April 22nd, 2012

Two LDS stakes were in the city of Accra in Ghana in Africa. A temple was built and dedicated in Accra in 2004. There are now 50,000 members and 10 stakes in Ghana. Ghana has as many stakes as France, Paraguay and Spain. These are the first new stakes in Ghana in 2012, one stake was created in 2011.

Norway created it's second stake. The only other stake is in Oslo, created in 1977.  Norwegian members must travel to Stockholm, Sweden for a temple.  There are also temples in Copenhagen, Denmark and Helsinki Finland, so perhaps a temple will be built in Oslo soon.

There are now 2,962 Stakes and the Church is on track to create the 3,000 Stake this year !

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/units/

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/New-stake-presidents

Maps:

Global LDS population surpasses Jewish membership

At the end of 2011, Worldwide membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stood at 14,450,000.  This surpasses the worldwide membership of the Jewish religions.

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

The Jewish religion is 5,772 years old in 2012.  The LDS church is 182 years old.

Tragically in 1940 there were 18 Million adherent to the Jewish faith, there were approximately 12 Million after World War II and the Holocaust and estimated 14 Million today.

In 1940 there were 860,000 LDS worldwide and 14.5 Million today.

Here is a map of the 137 operating LDS temples - There are another 19 under construction or site announced.

2000-2010 US LDS growth at 45%

The LDS Church membership in the United States grew at an amazing rate during the first decade of this century.  The Association of Religion Data Archives conducted their census and reported that religious adherents to established churches dropped (1.83% from 2000 to 2010)  Bucking the trend were Mormons and Muslims.  The LDS church grew at a rate of 45% over the decade, growing from slightly over 4 Million members to now 6.5 Million adherents in the United States alone.  Worldwide the LDS church counts 14.5 Million members over the age of 8.  The US is now over 2% LDS.

http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/rcms2010.asp?U=99&T=US&S=Name&Y=2010

image (fits)

Spreadsheet Data (too wide)

Association of Religion Data Archives	(ARDA)	2010
Religious Bodies	Tradition	Family	Adherents	Adherent Change	%Change (2000)
Catholic Church	Catholic	Catholicism	58,936,006	(3,106,055)	-5.01%
Southern Baptist Convention	Protestant	Baptist	28,760,401	(577,442)	-1.97%
Non-denominational	Evangelical Protestant	----	12,241,329	0	0.00%
United Methodist Church, The	Mainline Protestant	Methodist/Pietist	12,231,451	(263,031)	-2.11%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Mainline Protestant	Lutheran	7,191,194	(1,204,535)	-14.35%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The	Other	Latter-day Saints	6,267,771	1,944,871	44.99%
Assemblies of God	Evangelical Protestant	Pentecostal	5,779,641	635,210	12.35%
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Mainline Protestant	Presbyterian-Reformed	5,037,602	(1,140,570)	-18.46%
Buddhism, Hindu, Muslim	Other	Other Groups	4,428,558	1,059,964	31.47%
Church of God & Nazarene	Evangelical Protestant	Holiness	2,364,004	(71,079)	-2.92%
Judaism	Other	Judaism	2,256,584	0	0.00%
Episcopal Church	Mainline Protestant	Episcopalianism/ Anglicanism	1,951,907	(362,849)	-15.68%
Seventh-day Adventist Church	Evangelical Protestant	Adventist	1,198,838	270,867	29.19%
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	Orthodox	Eastern Liturgical (Orthodox)	1,054,915	3,666	0.35%
Amish & Mennonite	Evangelical Protestant	European Free-Church	767,249	(34,388)	-4.29%
Church of Christ, Scientist	Other	Christian Science	501,553	0	0.00%
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations	Other	Liberal	211,606	28,908	15.82%
*Includes Bodies w/over 1,000 members			150,680,209	(2,816,463)	-1.83%

3 more new stakes in April (VA, DE, Brazil)

The LDS Church announced 3 new stakes, making 13 new stakes through April 15th in 2012

11. Buena Vista Virginia YSA - April 15th, 2012
12. Dover Delaware - April 15th, 2012
13. Macapá Brazil - April 15th, 2012

There are now 2,959 stakes worldwide.

The Buena Vista Virginia YSA, supports Young Single Adults, mostly at Southern Virginia University, and LDS university, not run officially by the Church.  That makes 20 stakes in Virginia. Virgina stays in Eleventh place behind Florida and ahead of Georgia. All 20 stakes are in the Washington DC temple district

The  Dover Delaware Stake is only the 2nd stake in little Delaware, the first was created in Wilmington in 1975. Now RI and VT are the US states with only a single stake.

The Macapá Brazil Stake is the 2nd created in Brazil this year. There are 244 stakes in Brazil for the 1.2 Million members. This is in the less populated Northern part of Brazil (might be in the Caracas Venezuela Temple District)
From http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2012/04/first-stake-in-amapa-state-brazil-to-be.html as of April 6th
"With the creation of the first stake in Amapá, there will be only one Brazilian state without a stake: Roraima.  In Roraima, the sole district in Boa Vista also appears close to becoming a stake within the next couple years and, like the Macapá Brazil District, includes five branches all within one city."

New Stake in Samoa, 7th in March

The Church created a new stake in Samoa on March 18th, 2012 called Savaii Samoa Pu'apu'a Stake.  This is "Western" Samoa as compared to American Samoa (which has 4 more stakes)  Samoa has a temple in Apia. This is the first new Samoan stake created since 1996.  This is the 10th stake created in just the first 3 months of 2012. There are now 2,956 stakes worldwide.

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/