FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Utah/Statistical claims/LDS population in Utah
< Utah | Statistical claims
Criticism
"Within the state of Utah, the number of Mormons has steadily declined over the past 10 years."
Source(s) of the criticism
- Search for the Truth DVD pre-distribution letter. FAIRWiki link
Response
The producers of the DVD video Search for the Truth claim that the number of Latter-day Saints in Utah has fallen, which means, according to them, "within Utah, we are doing a fairly good job of combating Mormonism" and "the Mormon Church is vulnerable."
But the video is simply incorrect, according to figures from the U.S. Census and the LDS Church Almanac.
| Utah: Total | Utah: LDS | Utah: Non-LDS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31-Dec-1990 | 1,722,850 | 1,236,242 | 486,608 |
| 31-Dec-2005 | 2,469,585 | 1,752,467 | 717,118 |
| 15-year growth | 43.34% | 41.76% | 47.37% |
| annualized growth | 2.89% | 2.78% | 3.16% |
As the table shows, the LDS population in Utah is growing, it is just growing at a slower rate than the non-LDS population. The reasons for this are unknown, but may have to do with high non-LDS immigration into Utah during this period.