Although many people think of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Caucasians from Utah, the reality is that the Church’s membership profile is changing rapidly as it expands worldwide. In a current Washington Post “On Faith” blog, Church Public Affairs managing director Mike Otterson explains that Mormons are not necessarily who you think they are.
The popular picture of a predominantly Utah faith with mostly Caucasian members no longer holds up. The Church’s demographics are changing rapidly, especially throughout the western hemisphere. What was once, by and large, an American church is now a genuinely international faith. Today there are more Mormons outside the US than in it. Today, Mormons are Bolivians, Ghanaians, Koreans and Russians, all an integral part of the Church family.
To illustrate the point, Otterson takes the Church’s 14 million people and statistically represents that whole body as a single congregation of 100. The infographic above shows the various languages spoken by this congregation of 100 Latter-day Saints.
Read Otterson’s blog post in its entirety at “On Faith.”