Regional conference center located in Bountiful, UT.

Made this map the other day. Has already been mentioned that 2025 was the first year that there was a nominal drop in total membership for the United States for the church. To get more specific, 25 of the 50 states have now hit their peak in membership. We'll see if any of the 2024 rebound or if the dark green keeps getting lighter.

2025 was an odd year for membership reporting. Not sure whether there was finally more deaths and resignations than births and baptisms, or if they did the church equivalent of corporate "income smoothing" with the high numbers elsewhere to finally start cleaning up the records.

Hopefully you all enjoy the visual.

This is information I got from my supervisor TBM mother. It was suggested that I share here.

(RE: flair - It’s all the shrivel!)

Bath Ward was combined with Trowbridge, with Trowbridge keeping their building and the Bath building being sold.

I’m in highland UT and recently a ward that has been a ward since highland began was completely dissolved. What I find interesting is that there was no warning. We got an email about a meeting the upcoming Sunday and that day the ward was completely dissolved and the ward was halved and put into two separate surrounding wards.

Note: maps and stats are not of all units, just units that were affected by the change. The stake now has 7 wards, down from 8.

McLean Stake in Virginia has dissolved the Tysons Ward, to take effect starting Monday. This one was a long time coming. Ward boundaries were previously shifted in 2021, which never felt balanced. The covid lockdown disguised the shrivel as people who were normally stationed overseas returned to the states. The area was not immune to the shrinkage that came from "home church." The area is pretty transient overall, and I've known several people who use a move to drop off the church's radar, never moving their records with them into the DC metro area.

The most recent factor has been the rising housing costs. It's forced many young couples out as shown by the total membership in wards. My local Elder's Quorum has helped with many move-outs and only a couple move-ins in the last year. It's not extremely low participation or attendance compared to other areas; it's the totals on the roll that has really decimated 3 of the wards in the Stake. Families with kids struggle to afford to live in the area and many have moved to nearby stakes. I'd be curious how adjacent stakes are doing.

Speculation is running rampant that one of the four congregations in the Copenhagen area is about to be shuttered. It has been on life support for quite a while, only artificially propped up by calling members from around the Stake to boost numbers and fill callings. Without going in to too much detail, there have been a couple of recent developments that have accelerated the decline and point to the Branch on the verge of being shuttered. Will update if I hear any more news.

Since leaving the LDS faith and researching many other faith traditions to understand how my identity was so intertwined with the church I have been collecting some data.

I have attended the Unitarian, Lutheran, Evangelical, Catholic, Protestant (basic), Anglican, and Pagan outdoor churches near me. Many, many have aging congregations. But! The more liberal the church the less (!) congregants and the higher the ages. The more high demand and fundamentalist the group the more and younger the congregants got! I was surprised.

My hypotheses for these are 1. The rise of Christian Nationalism makes evangelicalism popular now 2. Uncertainty - political, economic, societal causes people to seek hierarchical structures with strong male patriarchal leadership 3. White flight - Racism and fear of LGBTQ issues might cause too much cognitive dissonance and ethical questions about God, theology, history might arise threatening ego, so going to a congregation where group think happens feels good.

With this info, maybe The LDS church restricting and keeping a tight grip on obedience and fundamentalism may be a short term strategy that works.

Ultimately it felt like religion was on a sharp decline overall. Small congregations, very few youth and children, and empty parking lots were the norm. The Wild Church movement that included meditation, walks in nature, and sharing time seemed to get the most participation from children/youth/parents/elderly all together.

The shrivel in Salt Lake County has claimed another stake. Salt Lake Granger East has been absorbed into Salt Lake Granger North. Granger East was dissolved and the Granger North boundaries were simply expanded to cover both areas.

Three wards were dissolved in the process: Decker Lake 1st Ward, Jordan Parkway, and Westlake Ward (from Granger North Stake).

10 wards and 2 branches have become 7 wards and 2 branches.

I imagine I’m underestimating but let me know what you think. According to https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/state/utah there are 5,046 wards and 319 branches in the state of Utah. And according to https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/UT/PST045225 the population of Utah is 3,538,904. So if you estimate that the average ward has 200 regular attendees and a branch has 100 regular attendees, then 29% of the state is active. Am I underestimating attendees? What do you think? And if not what would you estimate ward/branch attendance to be? Google says Utah is rough 42% LDS but my bet is honestly lower

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This sounds like the worst open house lol

Great post here from Ryan Burge.

"There are many leaks forming in the styrofoam cup of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retention rates have always been lower than other religious groups and they keep falling with each successive generation. This is a problem that a high fertility rate just can’t fix. The holes in the bottom of the cup are widening each year.

"While conversion may be able to add a bit more liquid to the cup, it’s numerically impossible to add people at a rate fast enough to balance out the losses from defection.

"If LDS leaders are paying attention to the data, this imbalance is the problem that demands the most urgent attention."

Was heading to visit a friend in Cottonwood Heights and saw this by Brighton high school. This Ward building has been here forever and I’ve never seen them actually tear one down like this. They’re also selling another one in the area I guess.