How Many Members Are There Really? Two Censuses and the Meaning of LDS Membership in Chile and Mexico

Abstract

and what does it mean to be a member?The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regularly publishes figures representing Church membership.If nowhere else they appear in the biennial Deserei News Church Almanac.These figures are widely cited by the Church, members, scholars, and the press.As a result, it would seem that the question of how many members there are is a relatively simple issue.The other question, what it means to be a member, would seem to be the hard one.Yet, as we shall see, neither question is either straightforward or simple.Two major countries in Latin America, Mexico and Chile, recently published decennial census numbers that included specific religious identifications.Both countries required their inhabitants to identify their religious membership as part of the regular process of enumerating national populations.In the past, these numbers have been grouped in large categories, such as Catholic, Evangelical, and Other.