Demographics of Jehovah's Witnesses

As of 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses reported a monthly average membership of approximately 8.47 million actively involved in preaching, with a peak of 8.68 million.[1] Jehovah's Witnesses have an active presence in most countries, though they do not form a large part of the population of any country.

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To be counted as an active member, an individual must be a publisher, and report some amount of time preaching to non-members, normally at least an hour per month. Under certain circumstances, such as chronic and debilitating illness, members may report increments of 15 minutes. Jehovah's Witnesses' preaching activity is self-reported, and members are directed to submit a 'Field Service Report' each month. Baptized members who fail to submit a report every month are termed 'irregular'. Those who do not submit a report for six continuous months are termed 'inactive'.[2] For 2018, more than 2 billion hours of preaching were reported and nearly 304,000 new members were baptized, with a net increase of about 100,000. More than 9 million home Bible studies with Jehovah's Witnesses were reported,[1] including Bible studies conducted by Witness parents with their children.[3][4]

Jehovah's Witnesses' official statistics only count as members those who submit reports for preaching activity, usually resulting in lower membership numbers than those found by external surveys. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses report approximately 1.2 million active publishers in the United States, whereas the Pew Research Center reported that Jehovah's Witnesses make up 0.8% of the US population (approximately 2.5 million).[5] Their official statistics indicate membership according to various territories—which they refer to as "lands"—many of which are not independent countries.

According to official statistics, about 20.9 million people worldwide attended Jehovah's Witnesses' 2019 observance of the Memorial of Christ's death (also termed the Lord's Evening Meal).[1] Of those, more than 19,500 people partook of the memorial emblems of unleavened bread and wine.[1] Those who partake profess to be of the 144,000 "anointed" and hope to go to heaven, based on their interpretation of Revelation 14:1.

Congregations are generally organized geographically, and members are directed to attend the Kingdom Hall to which their neighborhood has been assigned, resulting in an ethnic mix generally representative of local population, though congregations based on language and ethnicity have also been formed.[6][7][8]

Jehovah's witnesses congregations in countries where their work is banned usually are distributed according to the availability of meeting venues or homes and may change the locations accordingly.[9]

'Lands' Peak publishers Increase over 2019 Congregations Average Bible studies Memorial attendance Memorial partakers
240[1] 8,683,117[1] 1.3%[1] 119,712[1] 9,618,182[1] 20,919,041[1] 20,526[1]

See also

References
  1. "2019 Grand Totals". Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.
  2. "Keep the Word of Jehovah Moving Speedily". Our Kingdom Ministry: 1. October 1982.
  3. "Question Box–Should a family Bible study be reported to the congregation?". Our Kingdom Ministry. Watch Tower Society: 3. November 2003.
  4. "Question Box—May both parents report the time used for the regular family study?". Our Kingdom Ministry: 3. September 2008.
  5. "Religious Landscape Study". PewResearchCenter.
  6. "My Love for the Earth Will Be Satisfied Forever". Awake!: 15. August 22, 1998. Additionally, congregations of Aboriginal people have been formed in Adelaide, Cairns, Ipswich, Perth, and Townsville.
  7. "My Love for the Earth Will Be Satisfied Forever", Awake!, August 22, 1998, ©Watch Tower, page 12-15
  8. "I Have Found Many Good Things". The Watchtower: 32. April 15, 2011. Today, Ibarra has six Spanish-speaking congregations, one Quichua-speaking congregation, and one sign-language congregation
  9. "Question Box–How to survive being Jehovah's witness in China?". Bitter Winter. Bitter Winter. July 2019.
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