Demographics of Jehovah's Witnesses
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As of August 2008, Jehovah's Witnesses claim an average membership of approximately 7.1 million actively involved in preaching.[1] To be counted, an individual must be a publisher, and report some amount of time in the ministry, normally at least an hour per month, or as little as 15 minutes under certain circumstances, such as chronic and debilitating illness. In 2008, these reports indicated a total of more than 1.4 billion hours.[2] Jehovah's Witnesses' preaching activity is self-reported, each member submitting a 'Field Service Report' monthly. (Baptized members who fail to submit a report every month are referred to as 'irregular'; those who do not submit a report for six continuous months are referred to as 'inactive'.[3])
Jehovah's Witnesses have an active presence in most countries, though they do not form a large part of the population of any country. The highest proportion of Witnesses in a country of substantial size is in Zambia, where 1% are active Witness publishers. They have the custom of counting their membership by 'lands' that are not necessarily independent countries. For example, Hawaii is considered a separate 'land' to the rest of the United States.
Recent decades indicate a decline in membership growth, from 8% per annum to about 2-3% per annum in less than 20 years. [4] The decline in growth has become more rapid since 1995, particularly in the Western world. In the United States, an academic study at Trinity College (Connecticut) based on a telephone survey (American Religious Identification Survey) was conducted in 2008, which reported an estimated 1.914 million adults in the US who self-identify as Jehovah's Witnesses.[5] Jehovah's Witnesses report over 1 million active publishers in the United States, but because this includes only actively preaching members (including minors), it is not directly comparable to the ARIS numbers. ARIS notes the survey covered English and Spanish speakers.
The Witnesses are noted for their racial and ethnic integration. In the United States, an academic study found that the proportion of African Americans among adults who self-identified as Witnesses at 37% (the highest proportion among any of the 22 largest religious identifications which make up 90% of the U.S. population).[6] Congregations are generally organized geographically, and members are encouraged to attend the Kingdom Hall in whose territory they reside, resulting in an ethnic mix generally representative of local population, though ethnicity-based congregations also exist.[7]
Jehovah's Witnesses commemorate the Memorial of Christ's death (also known as the Lord's Evening Meal) annually. According to the 2009 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, worldwide attendance at the 2008 celebration of the Memorial was 17,790,631, an increase of more than 100,000 over the previous year. In the U.S., 2.4 million people were present. In Zambia 657,519 attended, or 1 person for every 19 in the population. Of over 17 million in attendance worldwide, 9,986 persons partook of the memorial emblems of unleavened bread and wine, an increase of nearly 1,000 compared to the previous year. Those who partake profess to be of the 144,000 'anointed ones', that is, those with a heavenly hope (based on their interpretation of Revelation 14:1).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Annual Worldwide Statistics". Authorized Site of the Office of Public Information of Jehovah's Witnesses. http://www.jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-23. "While other religious groups count their membership by occasional or annual attendance, this figure reflects only those who are actively involved in the public Bible educational work."
- ^ Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses. 2009.
- ^ "Keep the Word of Jehovah Moving Speedily". Our Kingdom Ministry: 1. October 1982.
- ^ Growth statistic[1][2] Other statistics are also available[3].
- ^ American Religious Identification Survey, 2008 Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.
- ^ American Religious Identification Survey, 2001, City University of New York
- ^ "Preaching in a Land of Contrasts". The Watchtower: 24. 15 October 1993.
