What Is The Ethnic Makeup Of The Morman Church
Tim B. Heaton, "Vital Statistics," inLatter-day Saint Social Life: Social Research on the LDS Church and its Members (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1998), 105–132.
Abstract
This article reviews available data nigh demographics of the LDS Church. Fueled by a high growth rate, the membership has increased at an exponential rate. Forth with this growth, the distribution of members has shifted from a largely Utah-based congregation to an international church. High fertility has been an important source of growth in the United States, but an aggressive program of proselyting has go the major source of growth outside the Mountain West. Demographic characteristics of the membership vary widely across countries. Because of rapid growth, many members of the Church are immature and have had relatively few years of experience as adherents, especially in areas with high conversion rates. Some testify indicates that LDS members have higher up average levels of socioeconomic attainment, but such information is not bachelor in many countries. Information from selected countries indicates that family related characteristics such every bit marital condition, family size, and household composition vary widely from land to country.
The membership of The Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has undergone dramatic growth and increased geographic dispersion, and its composition is unusual in several respects. This discussion of LDS demographics will focus on (1) size, growth, and distribution of the population; (2) sources of growth and redistribution, including fertility, mortality, migration, conversion, and disaffiliation; and (iii) composition of the membership in terms of historic period, gender, race, marital condition, household structure, and socioeconomic status. Several of the statistics will be summarized for major geographical regions.
The Church implemented tape-keeping procedures from its organization in 1830. Its records provide several sources of information. First, such vital events as the approving of children (soon later on nascency) and baptism (later age eight) are recorded, and summary statistics are compiled. 2nd, a membership record is created and updated with data on marriages, ordinations to the lay priesthood, and geographic relocation. In the United states and an increasing number of other countries, membership records are computerized and some summary statistics are compiled. Third, every ward and branch is instructed to compile quarterly and annual reports that include data on the size of the congregation, numbers in attendance at church services, and group limerick. Fourth, sample surveys of the membership have been conducted in the Usa and some other countries by the Church's Enquiry Division. These surveys provide upwardly-to-date information comparable to demographic data available at the national level, and provide a basis for comparison betwixt Latter-day Saints and the host societies in which they live. 5th, Latter-twenty-four hours Saints are encouraged to compile information on their ancestors. These genealogies provide interesting historical information on LDS demographics. Finally, some sources of data for national populations in the The states and Canada include faith, and these populations comprise a sufficient number of Latter-day Saints to allow separate assay and comparing betwixt them and other groups.
The accuracy of data is limited by several factors. Record keeping is often assigned to lay members with insufficient time, resources, and grooming to ensure a high level of accurateness. Changing procedures and personnel besides create inconsistencies in collection procedures. Undercounts, missing reports, delays in recording change, and computational errors detract from data quality. Despite these problems, it is assumed that official data sources generally mirror demographic changes in actual Church membership.
Size, Growth, and Distribution
Size and Growth
From its inception, the Church has viewed missionary work as divinely mandated and thus has been committed to increasing its membership. First with the half-dozen people who officially organized the Church in 1830, the membership exhibits a classic pattern of exponential growth, as shown in fig. 4.one. Since 1860, the membership has grown at a relatively steady rate, doubling approximately every nineteen years. Growth was slower in the kickoff half of the twentieth century, but picked up once again afterward 1950. Membership stood at 7.76 million at the end of 1990.
Effigy iv.1: Growth in Total Membership
The size of the LDS population by the end of 1990 is presented for all countries in Appendix 13 of Encyclopedia of Mormonism. In addition to the United States, with 4.27 million members, ix other countries have more than ane hundred thou members. Thirty-8 countries have at least x 1000 members. The ratio of Latter-day Saints per thousand in the national population varies widely, from a low of . one in Nigeria to more three hundred in Tonga. Eight countries have at least 1 percent of their population belonging to the LDS Church building. Contempo growth rates also vary widely, from a low of 0.0 in Scotland to a high of .23 in Portugal. With some exceptions, growth rates are relatively low in Europe and the South Pacific, while Latin America and some areas of Asia and Africa have relatively high rates of growth.
Although projections based on current growth rates are usually not precise predictions of the hereafter, such projections practise indicate future possibilities. Using by patterns of growth every bit a baseline, sociologist of religion Rodney Stark has projected an LDS population of 265 million by the twelvemonth 2080. Using this projection, Stark has predicted that the LDS Church will go the side by side major world faith. If growth rates for the total membership observed between 1980 and 1989 remain abiding, the membership will increment to 12 million by the twelvemonth 2000, to 35 one thousand thousand by 2020, and to 157 million by the mid-twenty-first century, as shown in fig. 4.ii. Merely some regions are growing faster than others. If regional rates of growth remain constant, growth volition be even more dramatic in some areas.
Effigy iv.ii: Projections of Church Membership
Geographic Distribution
Growth has been accompanied by shifting distribution of the population. The get-go few decades were marked by several relocations of a core LDS customs and by a substantial infusion of new convert immigrants from United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and northern Europe. By the turn of the century, the cadre of the Church was firmly established in Utah (come across fig. 4.3). In 1930 one of every two Latter-24-hour interval Saints resided in Utah, an additional 30 percentage lived in the western Usa, and another 11 percent lived in the rest of the Us or Canada. In brusk, the membership was largely in the United States (90 percent) and concentrated in the Neat Basin.
Figure 4.three: Distribution of Church Members
By 1960, 90 pct of the membership still lived in the United states, but Utah's share had declined past 10 percent, and the other western states had gained 10 percent. After 1960, pregnant expansion of the international membership is axiomatic. The share of members in Due south America increased from 1 percent in 1960 to 16 percent in 1989. In the aforementioned menstruum, Mexico and Central America increased from ane percent to eleven percent, and an Asian population appeared with five percent of the full. The share of the population has remained fairly stable for Europe (four–5 percent) and the South Pacific islands (iii–4 per centum). Although a majority of the membership withal resides in the U.s. (57 per centum), an increasingly international mix is evident. Rapid growth betwixt 1980 and 1989 in countries such as the Philippines (from 57,000 to 213,000), Mexico (from 237,000 to 569,000), and Brazil (from 102,000 to 311,000), forth with potential new sources of growth in Africa, East Europe, and Asia, implies dramatic shifts in the distribution of Church membership.
Another way to consider growth is to focus on the distribution of new members. Between 1987 and 1989, nearly a million new members were added. Fig. four.4 shows the geographic location of this growth. South America, Fundamental America, and Mexico comprise more than 60 percent of these new members. Another ix per centum comes from Asian countries. Three percent of new growth is occurring in Utah, and other western states continue to be a solid source of new adherents. The full contribution of the Us and Canada amounts to one-fifth of the growth. The remaining 10 percent comes from Europe, the South Pacific, and Africa.
Figure four.4: Geographic Distribution of the Million New Members Who Joined, 1987-89
Membership projections based on the assumption that each surface area will go along to abound at the same rate observed between 1980 and 1989 betoken that geographic shifts may get fifty-fifty more dramatic. The membership in the United States, Canada, and Europe is growing at a relatively slow pace, such that their percentage would drib to xl percent in the year 2000, to 22 percentage in 2010, and to nearly 11 per centum by 2020. Although the African membership is growing at a loftier rate (fourteen percent annually), it has such a pocket-sized base that it would constitute less than iii pct by 2020. Asia would grow to more than 13 per centum of the membership past 2020. But the biggest gains would be in United mexican states and Primal and Due south America. Collectively, these areas would increase their share to 46 percent in 2000, to 62 per centum in 2010, and to 71 percent in 2020.
Sources of Population Change
The basic demographic equation states that population change equals births minus deaths plus internet migration. For religious institutions, conversion and disaffiliation must also exist discussed.
Fertility
Fertility refers to actual childbearing rather than to the biological capacity to give nascence. LDS theology supports attitudes and behaviors that direct influence fertility (Edible bean, Mineau, and Anderton 1990). Consistent with a pronatalist doctrine, LDS fertility in the United states of america has been higher than the U.S. average, probably since the inception of the Church.
Genealogical records of persons living in Utah show a high average family size throughout the nineteenth century (come across fig. 4.5). Family unit size is lower, however, for the primeval members of the Church (those born before 1830) than for those who reached the prime years of childbearing during the catamenia of Utah settlement. This rise in fertility is consequent with the frontier hypothesis that low population density and easy access to new land promotes early marriage and larger families. Equally population growth and economic development led to a more urbanized, secularized society, family size declined. Family size too was larger for those who evidenced greater attachment to the LDS Church (lifetime-committed and converts) than for not-active LDS and for non-LDS residents. This difference is consistent with LDS teachings favoring increased nativity rates.
Effigy 4.5: Average Number of Children Built-in to Women. Utah Genealogies
In the twentieth century, the LDS and Utah nascence rates more often than not have been parallel with, but essentially higher than, birth rates in the U.s., every bit shown in fig. four.6. After 1965, the U.s. birth charge per unit continued to decline, just Utah experienced another baby nail while the total LDS nascency rate leveled off at a relatively high level. Since 1980, both Utah and total LDS birth rates have declined precipitously, though still remaining above full U.S. levels. Every bit an increasingly larger share of the LDS population in the United States resides exterior of Utah and the LDS population grows in other countries, neither the Utah nor the total LDS fertility charge per unit provides an authentic measure of LDS fertility in the U.s.a.. Trends do, however, back up the decision that Latter-day Saints respond to many of the same historical forces that affect family size of broader populations, and that LDS families have persistently been larger than the U.S. national average.
Figure four.6: Birth Rates: LDS, Utah, and U.S., 1920-85
A comparison of LDS family size in the U.s. with family size in other major religious groups shows that LDS families are substantially larger, particularly for Mormons who attend church regularly (run across fig. four.7). Latter-solar day Saints who regularly attend church building average one child more than per family than Catholics, and the deviation is even greater in comparing with both liberal and bourgeois Protestants. Larger LDS family size is sustained past pronatalist religious behavior, past contact with a reference grouping sharing similar values, and by socialization into the LDS subculture (Heaton 1989). As the Church spreads into other cultural contexts, it remains to be seen how the interplay between religious pronatalism and broader societal trends will be resolved. LDS fertility appears to be above the national average in Britain and Japan but below average in Mexico (Heaton 1989). Commitment to the LDS Church does not have uniform influence on family size in these three countries. These cross-cultural differences suggest that converts will be flexible in adapting to the pronatalist beliefs of their new religion.
Loftier birth rates accept been an important source of growth throughout LDS history. In the frontier era, loftier fertility was necessary to fuel population expansion. After 1900, conversion rates for several decades were relatively low, and fertility was the major source of growth. As LDS birth rates dropped in the United States in the late twentieth century, conversions in various countries became the major source of growth. Although LDS family size will nearly likely adjust to broader social trends, it seems that emphasis on childbearing will remain a distinctive characteristic of the religious tradition.
Figure 4.7: Children Ever Built-in in the U.South.A. past Religion and Church Omnipresence, 1981
Mortality
The LDS code of health, known as the Word of Wisdom, prohibits the employ of alcoholic beverages, tobacco, coffee, and tea. Conformity to this code should reduce death rates. Utah death rates are below rates in the nation at large and in the mountain states for most major causes of decease, including heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular illness, accidents, pulmonary affliction, pneumonia/
Studies of specific LDS populations in California (Enstrom 1989), Utah (Gardner and Lyon 1982; Lyon, Gardner, and West 1980), and Alberta, Canada (Jarvis 1977) show that LDS men are most half as probable to die of cancer equally other men. LDS women besides take lower cancer bloodshed, but the departure is not as groovy as for men. Latter-solar day Saints also have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Decease rates are lower for Latter-day Saints who have higher levels of religious participation. In brusk, adherence to the Mormon lawmaking of wellness appears to lower decease rates from several diseases. Simply lower mortality is not as of import as high fertility or conversion in creating loftier rates of growth in the LDS membership.
Migration
Migration was a common feel for early Latter-twenty-four hours Saints every bit the central settlement shifted from New England to Kirtland, Ohio; to Missouri; to Nauvoo, Illinois; and finally to Utah. During this early period, a major missionary effort was launched in Britain and western Europe. Converts were encouraged to gather to the center of Mormon activity, and the Church established a fund to support immigration from Europe. Indeed, the infusion of new members from Europe was crucial to expansion and perhaps even survival of the Utah Church. In some years, the number of new baptisms reported by the British mission exceeded the total reported growth in LDS membership. Of the women in the Utah genealogical data base who were built-in betwixt 1820 and 1849, more than than xx percent were born in Scandinavia, more than 40 percent in Great Uk, and an additional two–4 percent in other European countries (Bean, Mineau, and Anderton 1990). Although the LDS Church had its beginnings in the United States, at that place was a pregnant menses when a majority of the membership was foreign-born. Past the turn of the century, all the same, more than than 90 percent of members were born in Utah. Immigration had almost ceased as a source of growth.
Gathering to Utah is no longer encouraged; indeed, members have been encouraged to remain and build the Church wherever they reside. LDS migration trends in the Usa between 1976 and 1981 suggest, all the same, some persistent attraction to Utah (Larson 1989). Utah Mormons are somewhat less probable to move to another state, and those born in Utah are more likely to return to their state of nativity in a subsequent motility than are Mormons built-in elsewhere. Between 1976 and 1981, in that location was also a cyberspace flow of migrants into Utah. Information technology appears that Utah, as the center of LDS culture, still has some power to draw migrants from other areas. There is well-nigh no information on migration patterns of Latter-day Saints outside of the Usa.
Figure 4.eight: Growth from Catechumen Baptisms, 1987-90
Conversion
As a result of missionary efforts, 330,877 convert baptisms were reported in 1990, upward from 210,777 in 1980. In 1987–89, Church membership grew at approximately 4 percent per year considering of convert baptisms (see fig. 4.8). Conversion rates tend to be higher in areas where the LDS presence is relatively contempo than in areas with more extended contact. Growth due to conversion during this menstruation varied from a high of 13 per centum in Africa to a low of .5 percent in Utah. Latin America and Asia had rates a little nether ten pct, Europe was a trivial above 5 percentage, the eastern U.s. and the Southward Pacific were around 3 percentage, and Canada and the western United States were betwixt ane and ii percent.
Reporting procedures render it incommunicable to get exact data on whether new members are children of members or new converts. An approximation can be made, even so, by comparing the reported number of convert and 8-twelvemonth-old baptisms. For the entire membership the ratio of convert baptisms to eight-year-old baptisms increased slightly from 2.59 for 1980–84 to 2.72 for 1985–89. The ratio varies dramatically from region to region as shown in fig. 4.nine. In Asia and Due south America there are roughly 15 converts for every 8-year-former baptized. The effigy for Mexico and Cardinal America is somewhat lower, with about ten converts per 8-twelvemonth-old. Europe, Africa, the eastern United States, and the South Pacific have values between two and ten converts per 8-twelvemonth-old, while Canada falls between one and two converts per viii-year-old baptized. In the western United States, converts and children are nearly evenly numbered, but in Utah, children baptized outnumber converts by most five to 1. In most parts of the globe, a majority of Latter-twenty-four hours Saints bring together the Church building through conversion rather than family unit socialization. This trend stands in contrast to the tardily nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when a bulk of Mormons had been raised in an LDS family.
Effigy iv.10: Projections of Church Activity by Historic period 65. LDS Membership in the United states of americaA.
Disaffiliation
Not all whose names are on the Church building records as members would consider themselves to exist so. In the 1981 Canadian census, for case, fourscore-ii m people stated Mormon equally their religious preference, yet LDS records reported 85,006 members. The difference implies that 3–four percent of members on the records exercise not consider themselves to be Latter-twenty-four hours Saints. Official statistics on excommunication are non published, but formal excommunication or removal of names from the records is rare, probably affecting less than 1 percentage of the membership. More common is the experience of disaffiliation or detachment. A recent report of LDS members in the United States indicates that 44 percent feel a period of inactivity at some fourth dimension and so resume religious interest (regularly attention meetings), while 22 per centum remain active throughout their entire lives (come across fig. 4.10). Eight out frequently current members volition go disengaged for a menstruation of at to the lowest degree one twelvemonth. Nearly i of every five members retains his or her religious belief simply does not attend meetings (disengaged believers); and only 14 percent remain disengaged nonbelievers.
Evidence of cyberspace change in membership comes from national social surveys of self-reported religious affiliation. Ane such survey reports a 36 percent internet gain for Mormons among people who switch religions (Roof and Hadaway 1977).
In areas exterior the Usa where the Church is less well established and where nigh growth is from recent conversion, retentiveness of members may non be as high. Omnipresence at sacrament meeting varies substantially. Asia and Latin America have weekly attendance rates of near 25 per centum, Europe averages about 35 percent, and Africa, Canada, the South Pacific, and the United states average between 40 pct and 50 per centum. Integration of new members is more difficult in areas of high growth due to conversion considering there are fewer established members to assist converts become acculturated.
Demographic Characteristics
Sex Ratios
LDS sex ratios are similar to those of national populations, except they are too greatly influenced by the conversion procedure.
In near populations, in that location are slightly more male than female births, but males feel a higher mortality rate, such that females predominate at older ages. It can be problematic within the Church if sex ratios in certain areas are substantially diff, since Latter-day Saints are encouraged to marry inside their own faith and considering a majority of college-level leadership positions are not available to women, who do not agree the priesthood required to fill these positions. The ratio of males to females for geographic areas is shown in fig. 4.xi. Africa is unusual because there are substantially more men than women who are members of the Church. This indicates that African men are more than likely to exist converted than are African women. Latter-day Saints in Utah, other western states, and the South Pacific have gender ratios of approximately 95 males per 100 females, which is the value for the total U.S. population. Ratios in the Church are somewhat beneath the U.S. average in the eastern United States, Canada, and Asia, and females outnumber males by a large margin in Latin America and Europe.
Effigy 4.11: Gender Ratios by Region. Males per 100 Females, 1990
Information from the 1981 Church building Membership Survey of the The states and Canada indicates that sexual activity ratios become smaller for older age groups, for singles, and for those who attend church regularly (Goodman and Heaton 1986). For example, among singles over age thirty who nourish church weekly, at that place are only nineteen men for every 100 women.
Figure 4.12: Child Dependency Ratios. Children per 100 Adults, 1990
Age
Church membership statistics are reported separately for children under twelve, youth aged twelve to eighteen, and adults. The ratio of children to adults gives some indication of historic period structure, every bit shown in fig. 4.12. This ratio ranges from more than than lx children per one hundred adults in the South Pacific to well-nigh thirty children per 1 hundred adults in Europe. Ratios for young children (under twelve) are peculiarly high in Utah and the Due south Pacific, where fertility contributes a larger share of growth, simply relatively low in areas where conversion rates are highest. On the other paw, ratios of children aged twelve to eighteen to adults are greater in areas where conversion rates are high. This is probably considering a substantial number of converts join in late adolescence. Thus, the overall ratio is lowest in Europe considering of relatively low fertility and conversion rates. Differences in ratios suggest substantial variability in the types of activities and programs that would be nigh beneficial to the membership in each locale.
More than detailed age categorization is possible where membership records have been computerized. The historic period-sex structure of the U.S. membership reflects several trends (meet fig. 4.thirteen). Smaller numbers in the two youngest historic period groups are a result of failing fertility in the 1980s. Smaller numbers in successive historic period groups over age fifteen are created by (1) the past history of high nascency rates, which result in greater numbers at each younger age; (2) new converts, who tend to join in the late teens and twenties; and (3) bloodshed, which creates declining numbers at older ages. The shape of the age pyramid likewise suggests that the near hereafter will bring declining numbers of young children, temporarily growing numbers who may serve missions or want to enroll in Church building universities, a larger number available for matrimony, and possibly a high fertility "echo" when the big ten-to-xv age group reaches childbearing age.
At the youngest ages, males outnumber females by a slight margin in the U.S. membership. A higher percent of females converting to the Church creates a more than equal sex ratio in the twenties. Higher female conversion and higher male mortality rates shift the numbers in favor of females in the thirties. At older ages, females outnumber males past a substantial margin.
Figure four.13: Distribution by Age and Sexual activity. 1000s of Members (U.Southward.), 1990
Another way to think of age from an organizational perspective is to focus on years of experience in the organization. Using membership totals for past years, i may estimate the percent of electric current members with diverse amounts of experience (meet fig. iv.xiv). Consistent with patterns of growth, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and Central America accept high percentages of members with limited experience as Latter-day Saints: Roughly two-thirds of the members have been LDS less than nine years, and between a third and a half have less than four years' feel. Between one-fifth and one-3rd of those in the Due south Pacific, Europe, Canada, and the U.s.a. (excluding Utah) accept fewer than ix years' experience. In Utah, 84 percent of the membership has belonged for at least ix years. Equally i would expect, rapidly growing areas take only a pocket-size pool of well-seasoned Church members, while the opposite is the case for the membership of more established areas.
Effigy 4.14: Years of Experience as LDS Church building Members, 1990
Race-Ethnicity
Indigenous minorities are underrepresented in many LDS congregations. In the United States, where about 77 per centum of the population were not-Hispanic whites in 1980, 95 percent of the LDS population were non-Hispanic whites. About 12 percent of the U.S. population and only 0.4 percent of the LDS population were black. Hispanics and Asians constituted well-nigh viii percent of the U.S. population and less than 3 per centum of the LDS population. American Indians had a higher pct in the LDS Church (1.one percent) than in the U.Due south. population (0.6 pct).
The spread of the Church in Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa signals an increasingly various ethnic membership. Straight-line growth projections discussed above suggest the possibility of a Hispanic majority by 2010. In any upshot, international expansion implies a decline in the dominance of white North Americans.
Figure 4.15: Percent Married and Blazon of Marriage, 1990
Wedlock Rates and Household Composition
LDS teachings on marriage go on to be a distinguishing feature of belief and practice. In the early Church building, plural marriage was 1 of the LDS family'due south most widely noticed features. After information technology was taught openly in Utah, this practice increased quite rapidly. Of the Utah women born between 1830 and 1840 who e'er married (they would have reached the prime marriage ages in the 1860s, when plural marriage was at its top), about 30 pct entered into such marriages (Bean, Mineau, and Anderton 1990). The practice faded in the face up of national pressures. Merely nearly 12 percentage of the women born between 1855 and 1859 entered polygynous marriages, and the practice was rare among women born after 1880.
In the United states in the tardily twentieth century, LDS members have college rates of marriage and lower rates of marital dissolution than the national population. Union patterns vary in different areas of the Church (run across fig. 4.15). Marriages performed in LDS temples are the LDS platonic. The percentage of adults in a temple wedlock varies from about 45 per centum in Utah to less than 2 percent in Mexico and Primal America. Temple matrimony is relatively common amongst Latter-24-hour interval Saints throughout the U.s. and Canada just is relatively rare in other areas of the world. Union outside the temple is virtually as frequent as temple matrimony and is the virtually mutual form of marriage outside the United States and Canada. In some areas, a significant minority of marriages involve one partner who is LDS and another who is non. These interfaith marriages involve only nigh five percent of the membership in Utah, United mexican states, and Central America, but accomplish nearly 20 percent in other parts of the U.s.a. and in Canada. There are more than twice as many LDS women as LDS men married to spouses of some other faith.
The total percent married ranges from but over 40 percent in Asia to well-nigh lxx percent in Utah. Differences in the pct married are attributable to (1) high conversion rates among young people who have not nonetheless married; (2) regional variation in the age at which people marry; and (3) regional variation in divorce rates and in the propensity for divorced people to convert to Mormonism.
Less data is available on LDS household composition, but sample surveys show characteristics of the United States, Britain, Mexico, and Japan in the early 1980s. In fig. 4.16, 3 types of households are distinguished: (1) married couples with one or both existence LDS; (2) households headed by LDS singles (never married, divorced, or widowed); and (3) households with LDS children simply in which neither husband nor married woman nor single head is LDS. Married-couple households are the majority in the United States and Britain and form a slight bulk in Mexico. Single households constitute 20–xxx percent. Nihon and, to a lesser degree, Mexico are characterized by many households in which children are the only LDS Church members. Married-couple households are farther divided into both-member and 1-member couples. Both-member marriages predominate in the Usa, U.k., and United mexican states, just one-member marriages are more common in Japan. A meaning portion of both-member marriages have non been solemnized in a temple, especially outside of the U.s..
Figure four.16: Composition of Households with at Least One LDS Fellow member
Regarding the presence of children (under age eighteen) in households, a majority of married-couple LDS households in each land accept children, but the percent of married-couple households without children living at home is substantial (43 per centum in the United States, 35 percent in U.k., 24 percent in United mexican states, and 33 percentage in Japan). In many of these cases, the children are grown and have left their parents' home. Although a majority of single-headed households do not have children, a proportion (ranging from 0.9 percent in Nippon to nine.vii percent in Britain) are single-parent families.
The distribution of households does not fit any uniform blueprint across countries. The arcadian vision of a family unit with a hubby and wife married in the temple and children nowadays describes only one out of five LDS families in the United States and less than 3 pct of LDS families in Nihon. Information for these four countries suggests that the household composition of the LDS membership is diverse.
Socioeconomic Status
Membership records and statistical reports from local areas practice not include information on socioeconomic status. Sample survey data are available from a few countries, just the data must exist interpreted with caution considering survey response rates favor those who participate in Church activities most frequently. Socioeconomic data may be more than indicative of participating members than of all members.
Studies in the United States indicate that LDS educational attainment is above the national average and that, compared to the population every bit a whole, Latter-day Saints are more likely to be both highly educated and religiously involved (Albrecht and Heaton 1984). Possible explanations for the positive role of education are that the Church has emphasized the importance of gaining knowledge and that education facilitates participation in an arrangement staffed by lay volunteers.
A similar orientation toward educational achievement can likewise be observed in other countries. Fig. 4.17 shows that in Japan, Latter-mean solar day Saints are more than twice as likely as the national population to have college feel. In Britain, Church members are merely slightly above the national boilerplate in educational feel. In Mexico, where the comparison standard is postprimary rather than college experience, Church members exceed that national charge per unit by a factor of two. The percentage with postsecondary teaching is higher among Canadian Saints than the national population. Less-representative samples besides show higher up-average LDS educational attainment in some African countries (Heaton and Jacobson 1990).
Effigy 4.17: Percent of Adults with College Experience, 1981-83
Adult male person employment rates are quite high and relatively compatible throughout most countries of the world, and bachelor evidence indicates that averages for LDS males are like to national averages. Female person employment is much more variable. In the early 1980s, about one-half of LDS adult women were in the labor force in the Usa, Canada, and Great britain (meet fig. 4.eighteen). These percentages were nigh identical to the national averages. LDS women in Mexico were less likely to be in the labor force when compared with LDS women in the United States, but were still slightly above the national average for Mexico. Japan presents a dissimilarity, as 63 percent of LDS women are in the labor forcefulness. This is notably higher than the rate for LDS women in other countries or for Japanese women as a whole.
Effigy 4.eighteen: Pct of Women in the Labor Force, 1981-83
A comparison of the occupational status of Latter-twenty-four hours Saints with national populations shows that within each country Church members are at least as likely to take professional occupations (see fig. 4.xix). In Japan and Mexico the LDS percentages are essentially higher than those for the full population (the Mexico comparisons are based only on half dozen cities where the LDS survey was conducted). African data as well suggest that Church building members have in a higher place-average occupational attainment (Heaton and Jacobson 1990). Although data on education, employment, and occupation is limited to a few countries, patterns suggest that Mormons have average or above-average socioeconomic attainment. In some 3rd World countries, joining an American-based church may be associated with upward mobility. Missionary efforts may also focus, either intentionally or unintentionally, on eye- or upper-level socioeconomic groups. Finally, an emphasis on achievement and self-sufficiency may promote and develop higher socioeconomic attainment within the membership.
Effigy four.nineteen: Percent of LDS in Labor Strength in Professional Occupations, 1981-88
Information on income is more than hard to obtain than for education and employment considering of national differences in reporting and individual reluctance to divulge income. Surveys conducted in the early 1980s bespeak that LDS income is about the same as the national average in some countries. In the United states of america, reported boilerplate household income of Church members was $22,294, slightly above the national average of $21,063. In United kingdom, 33 percentage of Latter-twenty-four hour period Saints and 32 percent of the national population had incomes below £5,000, while 3 percent of Church members and 4 pct of the national population had incomes above £10,000. In the 1981 Canadian census, LDS men were a lilliputian above the national average ($17,222, compared to $16,918), but LDS women were a lilliputian below average ($7,243, compared to $8,414). In Mexico and Nihon the percentage of income going to the poorest and richest fifths of the population were approximately equal for Latter-twenty-four hours Saints and the national population. Although LDS family income may be slightly above the national average in the United States, LDS per capita income is lower, due in part to larger family size.
Measures of poverty, which take into account household size, evidence that 13 percentage of U.S. LDS households fell below the poverty level in 1981, compared to a national figure of 14 percent. As in the U.South. population as a whole, female-headed LDS households with children are especially prone to fall below the poverty level (Goodman and Heaton 1986).
As the LDS Church building expands in developing countries, the economic status of the membership will continue to change. A rough approximation of economic status of the membership can be computed by multiplying the per capita gross national product (GNP) of each state by the proportion of all LDS membership in that land and summing the product across all countries. For 1974 this process yields a per capita LDS GNP of $half dozen,044, or 88 percent of the U.S. national per-capita GNP. By 1987, the LDS figure had become but 75 percent of the national GNP. Projections of Third Globe growth presented above advise fifty-fifty greater decline in the average income of the full LDS membership in the coming years.
References
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Source: https://rsc.byu.edu/latter-day-saint-social-life/vital-statistics
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