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Heat map of US growth rates 2015-2018

Below is a heatmap of growth rates per US state from 2015 to 2018. These are based on the number of active members from 2014 till 2018, assuming an overall activity rate of 40%. A few observations:


 As the bottom line of the heat map shows, the overall US growth rate is in a steady decline, from 1% in 2015 to 0.6% in 2018.

The reason for this becomes obvious when we analyze the growth patterns per state in relation to the impacted membership numbers. Decreasing and negative growth patterns far outweigh the increasing and flat ones:


This trend is even more pronounced in the traditional market for Mormonism. In all but one of the Western states, growth patterns are either flat, decreasing or negative:


Nevada, the only exception in the table above, went from 0% to 0.5% growth in five years, just shy of one thousand added church-going members.

All in all, the Mormon Church is still growing in the US but its growth rate is dropping below that of the general population, meaning Mormonism is becoming even more marginal than it already was.