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I notice on Wikipedia that it lists the total number of Jewish adherents at ~14 million, and it lists the number of adherents in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) at ~15.3 million. Are there really more Mormons in the world then there are Jews?

curiousdannii
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ShemSeger
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  • If the numbers are correct, then yes. Are you expecting the existence of other sources that tell different numbers? Note that you are somewhat comparing apples to oranges. Jewish as a concept is a mix of religion and nation identity. I would expect the existence of a lot of irreligious jews. On the other hand, the LDS number counts people having at one point been baptized, who are not excommunicated on own wish or for other reasons. A lot of those aren't actually practicing. Also it's not really hard to grow faster than a religion growing mostly through "natural means" if you proselytize. – kutschkem May 12 '15 at 08:09
  • @Jamiec I think kutschkem did not use the right words, but I agree with him/her that Jewish seems a complex identity, surpassing the simple religious one. Then I agree that comparing Jews and Mormons is quite difficult. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F – Einenlum May 12 '15 at 11:29
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    @Jamiec kutschkem might also have meant "[ethnic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation) identity". – ChrisW May 12 '15 at 11:49
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    @ChrisW Yes that's the word. What I meant is that "jewish" people don't necessarily identify themselves as jewish because of some religious belief. I met enough non-believing people identifying themselves as Jewish to be convinced of that. And that was not in Israel, by the way. – kutschkem May 12 '15 at 14:17
  • What would be the reason to doubt the veracity of Wikipedia's sources? – user5341 May 12 '15 at 15:26
  • @DVK I work in an academic Library. – ShemSeger May 12 '15 at 15:28
  • @ShemSeger - I didn't say Wikipedia, I said the sources (I assume that the claim is referenced in that article - if not, you should mention that in the question) – user5341 May 12 '15 at 15:29
  • @DVK Those numbers on Jewish adherants are apparently from the 90's, and only *approximate* estimates. – ShemSeger May 12 '15 at 15:38
  • @ShemSeger - As far as I understand the on-topic rules, if the claim is about 90s, you can only ask about 90s. If you're asking about 2015, you need to find a claim that is valid for 2015. – user5341 May 12 '15 at 15:49
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    @DVK The claim is on Wikipedia right now, you can't blame me if they're using outdated sources. – ShemSeger May 12 '15 at 15:51
  • I looked - the most recent sources of adherents to religion are from 1990. I dont think you're going to do that much better. – Jamiec May 12 '15 at 16:11
  • It might also be well to ask if all the Mormons are actually alive. One part of the religion (as I understand it, anyway), is that Mormon converts can get their ancestors baptized into the faith. That's why the LDS church maintains extensive genealogical resources. – jamesqf May 12 '15 at 18:49
  • I found this http://ldsmediatalk.com/2013/04/07/lds-general-conference-memes-april-2013/ldschurchnumbers/ which cites 15.7 million LDS members in 2013. – GEdgar May 12 '15 at 19:08
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    @jamesqf: That's an extreme simplification of a much deeper theological topic, and it's entirely irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion. The count of members released by the church at its General Conferences means exactly what an outsider would intuitively think it means: people alive today. – Mason Wheeler May 12 '15 at 23:24
  • The statistical report in the last general conference states 15.3 Million members at the end of 2014. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/statistical-report-2014?lang=eng I don't think we can get more current information, the church only receives reports every quarter year. – kutschkem May 13 '15 at 09:14
  • @Mason Wheeler: Of course it's a simplification - just what do you expect in the 500 or so characters of a comment? But my point remains: what is being counted? And who's doing the counting, and why do you expect them to be accurate and/or honest? – jamesqf May 13 '15 at 19:39
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    @jamesqf The Church only reports *living* numbers. If the church were to report the numbers of the dead, including temple work, then the number would be somwhere in the hundreds of millions, if not billions. Baptisms for the dead have been preformed since the 1840's. – ShemSeger May 14 '15 at 15:33
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the OP seems to be the only person remarking on there being more people in one group than in another group – Andrew Grimm Nov 14 '19 at 21:29

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Yes, this seems to be right.

I found this report which states worldwide Jewish population to be estimated at about 13,8 million in 2013. At the latest LDS General Conference (April 2015), the statistical report stated 15,3 million members at the end of 2014.

Note that as I said in the comments, we are comparing apples to oranges here. Jewish population grows mainly through births, while LDS membership grows through births and convert baptisms.

kutschkem
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    You reminded me of http://xkcd.com/1102/index.html – Avrham Aton May 13 '15 at 15:06
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    @user2900110 ;-P How much that comic applies depends on the region where you live. It's very much like that in South America, from what I hear. Not so much in Europe. Fewer converts, but retention is high. From my experience as ward secretary, I would estimate 30-40% of middle-european members are visiting church every week. The comic isn't fair because we actually expect people to live their religion. Also, before baptism people are taught quite a bit, it's not like we are interested in luke-warm converts for the numbers. Also non-retention is a dead end - generally no children are baptized.. – kutschkem May 13 '15 at 15:20
  • @user2900110 from families that aren't active, because they often don't have much contact with the church. That's also unlike some other confessions that I will leave unnamed. – kutschkem May 13 '15 at 15:21
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    While Judaism doesn't prevent people from converting, there indeed isn't much focus on proselytization. – JAB Aug 18 '17 at 01:20