Demographics of Jehovah's Witnesses

As of 2018, Jehovah's Witnesses reported a monthly average membership of approximately 8.36 million actively involved in preaching, with a peak of 8.58 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.

Part of a series on
Jehovah's Witnesses
Overview
Organizational structure
Governing Body Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Corporations
History
Bible Student movement Leadership dispute Splinter groups Doctrinal development Unfulfilled predictions
Demographics
By country
Beliefs Practices
Salvation Eschatology The 144,000 Faithful and discreet slave Hymns God's name Blood Discipline
Literature
The Watchtower Awake! New World Translation List of publications Bibliography
Teaching programs
Kingdom Hall Gilead School
People
Watch Tower presidents
W. H. Conley C. T. Russell J. F. Rutherford N. H. Knorr F. W. Franz M. G. Henschel D. A. Adams
Formative influences
William Miller Henry Grew George Storrs N. H. Barbour John Nelson Darby
Notable former members
Raymond Franz Olin Moyle
Opposition
Criticism Persecution Supreme Court cases by country

To be counted, 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 over 280,000 new members were baptized, with a net increase of about 140,000. More than 10 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.

The number of people who attend Jehovah's Witnesses' annual commemoration of the Memorial of Christ's death (also termed the Lord's Evening Meal) includes active Witnesses, their children, and others who are invited to attend. According to official statistics, worldwide attendance at the 2018 celebration of the Memorial was about 20.3 million.[1] Of those attending worldwide, 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]