Yesterday I posted some statistics on Church growth:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1200170

Here’s another bit of data:

Twenty countries with highest percentage of Internet users:
Average percentage of Internet users: 88.8%
Average Church growth rate 1999-2012: -0.6%

Twenty countries with lowest percentage of Internet users:
Average percentage of Internet users: 4.3%
Average Church growth rate 1999-2012: 10.1%

Good stuff!

Yes, very good stuff. Exactly what I would expect as well.

I certainly hold appreciation for your research and your efforts to investigate and seek deeper knowledge.

Nonetheless one must affirmatively question, as to what does this data tell us? Ok, we have the correlation trend here that the church grows faster in countries where there is no internet in comparison to countries where there is greater internet usage. One may be tempted almost to astutely affirm that "it's anti-mormon doctrine on the internet that causes this."

However is it? Indeed such a factor exists but surely not in enough relevance to conform to the statistic in and of itself, for what else do countries that have wider internet usage have in common?

First of all, such countries are without a doubt more secular, more developed. Religion is less of a cultural norm and certainly less of a fanatical theme within the society of these nations. How do people in France react to religion compared to that of lets say the congo? One nation is highly entrenched whereby the other is not. In further comparison, to what extent does the correlation of your statistics reflect the growth/decline of other religions? Jehovah's witnesses? Mormons? Is it church a Mormon thing?

Who knows? But nonetheless the data provides little relevance to the presence of challenging material on the internet for such an assumption automatically omits that pro-lds material on the internet is capable of having an impact too. There is it what is on the internet or is it the social, economic and cultural positives that allow widespread internet access that cause this to occur?

Top world 100 Uni student.

I’m certainly not implying causality, just presenting some information I find interesting. I think the prevalence and accessibility of information on controversial issues regarding LDS Church history and doctrine found on the Internet is having a negative effect on Church growth in those areas of the world where Internet access is widespread, but I am aware that the Internet is not the only factor.

The effect of the Internet on belief in the Mormon Church is displayed anecdotally here on RfM every day.

yeah, , I agree that it would be nice if some more in depth data could be had; however, a few things can be inferred from the statistics:

The internet savvy countries have negative numbers which means that people are leaving faster than joining...and when I say leaving, I mean officially RESIGNING their membership, NOT going INACTIVE...of course there are member deaths that play a role here too, but membership is counted until 110 years old...so why are members resigning?...this information would be definitely easier to obtain...a more definitive, obtainable sample group vs. people tracted by the missionaries that say "thanks, but no thanks".

I'm guessing based on feedback I've seen by reading various boards, that the internet has had a lot to do with people resigning. Information is way more obtainable than ever before. Instead of having to go to a library or make a clandestine trip to the Tanner's Utah Lighthouse Ministry Bookstore (for example), people can be on a bus, waiting for an appointment, killing time in a park, listening to a talk in sacrament meeting,etc, etc, etc and find out contrary information about the Church. Its not just the age of the internet, but it's the age of the INTERNET-ENABLED SMARTPHONE (you no longer need to be held hostage by your PC to do your research) that is "hastening the work" of people leaving...or at least questioning...not everyone who loses their testimony and becomes an unbeliever resigns...some still attend meetings while others just go inactive and just fade into the woodwork (as I have also witnessed by reading posts on various boards). The "unbelievers" that are inactives or are still attending are still counted on the records of the Church. Who knows how large this population actually is.

My two cents on the stats...

Good points Upsetrm. On my mission, I often made the observation that we had more success in poorer neighborhoods. This was before the internet was widespread, so I attributed it to the idea that richer people had fewer problems and/or had therapists and drugs to deal with problems, and so had less of a need for religion to ease the pain.

Just my own little theory.

I remember an old RfM post talking about an internet log-in method via LDSinc that essentially allowed 'the church' to see everything that computer did on-line. Am I misremembering?

I asked a TBM about it at the time and she denied any such thing. I left it at that.

But she did go on and say that it's pretty clear that the internet is Satan's greatest tool and TBMs should simply stay off it (the internet leads to masturbation which reduces missionary efforts and breaks up marriages was one line of reasoning. The other line was that the internet leads to confusion about what is and is not doctrine).

I said that it was once believed that the internet would be Heavenly Father's greatest missionary tool. It's too bad that Satan was powerful enough to wrestle this tool away from Heavenly Father, I said.

This is good. Would you mind listing the countries?

Nevin

Countries with highest percentage of Internet users:
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Bermuda
Finland
New Zealand
Qatar
Bahrain
United Kingdom
Canada
Andorra
Switzerland
United Arab Emirates
South Korea
Germany
Antigua and Barbuda
France

Countries with lowest percentage of Internet users:
Pakistan
Gabon
Rwanda
Solomon Islands
Republic of the Congo
Cameroon
Cambodia
Mozambique
Malawi
Togo
Benin
Liberia
Central African Republic
Ivory Coast
Papua New Guinea
Madagascar
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethiopia
Sierra Leone
Burundi

For countries with high Internet usage, total number of units went from 1749 to 1618. The country with the biggest drop was the United Kingdom which lost 40 units (from 373 to 333).

For countries with low Internet usage, total number of units went from 130 to 452. The country with the biggest gain was the Democratic Republic of the Congo which gained 83 units (from 33 to 116).

It's interesting to me to hear the Internet being so damned by the church. Growing up in the 60s/70s it was axiomatic that all technological advances were for the benefit of the church. Everything from the electric razor to civilian jet travel played its role to hasten the work. I have no idea how many times I heard variations on that meme. And now that the biggest information technology tectonic shift since the printing press comes along, it's of the devil?

the internet does a great job at hastening the TRUTH...of course, the Church has always professed itself as "the one true church"...therefore the technology (including the internet) is provided by God to "hasten the work" of the Church by making the world much smaller and enabling the Church to reach the World's population in a more streamlined manner.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2014 02:38PM by zenmaster.

Confirms our suspicions. Thanks

Anybody else notice the difference the top internet access countries and least?

What countries are richer, which ones are poorer?

Can you also give us the literacy rankings per country v. church growth?

I think that would also be very telling.

Top 20 countries ranked by literacy:
Andorra, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Luxembourg, Norway, South Korea, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Barbados, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Samoa, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus
Average literacy rate: 99.8%
Average annual Church growth rate 1999-2012: -0.1%
Country with largest drop in Church units: South Korea lost 47 units (from 175 to 128)

Bottom 20 countries ranked by literacy:
Nicaragua, Burundi, Morocco, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Nepal, Madagascar, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Pakistan, Haiti, Benin, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan
Average literacy rate: 56.3%
Average annual Church growth rate 1999-2012: 6.4%
Country with largest gain in Church units: Nigeria gained 165 units (from 185 to 350)

I keep waiting for an Elder Young to be called to Pakistan or a Sister Lee to be called to Saudi Arabia.

Mormonism will fill the earth, these places on earth. I'm pretty sure Idahoans and Arizonans kind find a Mormon if they need one to teach and baptize them.

Where is the US ranked in the data?

The US is 25th in Internet usage and 40th in literacy.

Since the Church is US based, what would the growth percentage be if you included the top 25 countries in internet usage (since US is #25). Would the growth % still be negative?

Just curious...

LOL this is very telling data.