New figures show fewer Mormons in Utah's biggest county

    SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Fewer than half the residents of Salt Lake County belong to the Mormon church, according to new figures that illustrate how Utah's largest county is becoming more religiously diverse.

    Mormons account for 49 percent of the 1.1 million residents in Salt Lake County — the lowest percentage since at least the 1930s, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. That's according to membership figures provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that include active and non-active members.

    Salt Lake County includes Utah's capital, Salt Lake City, which has long been more religiously diverse. But it also includes suburbs such as West Jordan, Sandy and South Jordan that have traditionally been Mormon hotbeds.

    "The place is just becoming much more diverse," said Pam Perlich, director of demographic research at the University of Utah's Gardner Policy Institute. "It is not just that data set that is indicating it. There are many data sets showing that."

    Statewide, Mormons account for nearly 62 percent of Utah's 3.1 million residents. That number is also inching down as the state's healthy job market attracts non-Mormon newcomers from other places.

    The ongoing demographic shift could have widespread impacts, including at the Utah Legislature, where most lawmakers are Mormon. All six members of the state's congressional delegation belong to the Utah-based faith as well.

    The number of people who are devoted Mormons is probably even lower, said independent Mormon researcher Matt Martinich. He estimates about 40 percent of Mormons are active. If that's true, it would mean only about 24 percent of Salt Lake County residents are active Mormons.

    Martinich said the faith has struggled in urban areas.

    Worldwide, church membership growth has decreased in recent years, with 2017 being the slowest in 80 years, according to Martinich's research. The number of convert baptisms in 2017 reached the lowest level in 30 years, he said.

    Salt Lake County is now one of five counties in the state where Mormons aren't the majority, joining Carbon, San Juan, Summit and Grand. The portion of Mormons in Weber County is also nearing that mark, down to 53 percent, the figures show.

    Two mostly rural counties in northeast Utah have the two highest percentages of Mormons: Rich County (84 percent) and Morgan County (83 percent).

    Utah County, home to the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University, has the third-highest percentage of Latter-day Saints with 82 percent. Utah County has the second most residents behind Salt Lake County.

    Derek Miller, president of the Salt Lake Chamber and former chief of staff for Gov. Gary Herbert, remembers growing up in Provo, where he knew only one kid who wasn't Mormon.

    After living in Washington, D.C., as adult, he returned to Utah and decided to live in Salt Lake City with his wife to raise their children. Miller said about half of his children's friends are Mormons.

    "With that increased diversity comes this feeling that it doesn't have to divide us," Miller said. "That is what I hope for them, and that is what I hope for our community."

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    • t
      todd
      19 hours ago
      For all those citing education, critical thinking and so forth as the key reason behind the population change may I suggest you educate yourself first before posting a bunch of bumper sticker rhetoric. Do you all not realize the Mormon church owns and operates several universities and colleges including BYU which has one of the top MBA programs in the nation? Just about every Mormon I know (and I work in Salt Lake County) has at least a bachelors degree if not masters and even some PhDs. Most Mormons are very well educated and education is key value the church teaches. The population change is primary due to the economic growth Utah has experience the past couple of years. Salt Lake has seen a huge influx in job growth as a number of large companies have come here to grow as well as locally grown companies (some of which are you guessed it started by Mormons) - why - again because SLC has a very educated workforce with major universities such as: USU, U of U, Weber, UVU and yes BYU all within an hour of Salt Lake.

      Regarding Joseph Smith, I don't know many con men who stick around once the gig is up. What was Joseph Smith conning people into? It certainly wasn't money or fame as he and his family were chased and driven from town to town until Joseph was ultimately murdered. All of the persecution he and family suffered because of what he believed (encouraging other's to follow Christ's example) never provide him or his family any kind of extravagant lifestyle, completely the opposite for anyone willing to education themselves and spend a bit of time reading history. If you want to really find out about the Mormon church why not go and attend a Sunday or two with them for yourself and see if it matches the descriptions of the posts here. I can promise you there will be a big discrepancy. Would you take dieting advice from someone who is always 40-50 lbs overweight or financial advice from the guy who is in debt to his eyeballs, maxed out credit cards and living pay check to pay check? If not, then may I recommend not taking spiritual/religious advice from random people on the internet.
    • D
      David
      yesterday
      The Mormons misinterpret Acts as Catholicism does: Jerusalem, in the eyes of the liberal control freaks, has come to be seen as some semi-permanent place of the first hierarchy-a forerunner of Rome, Constantinople, or Saint Louis for the Missouri Synod-the proleptic Vaticans of the future. So why do the Hyper-Euro-Lutherans and the papacy push this false teaching? One reason is they do not believe in the bare power of the Word of God to rule a congregation, but some mediator must be inserted between a congregation and Christ, and that is man (a hierarchical structure as in the papacy) taking the place of Christ (cf. Matthew 23:5-12; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18)-as 11 Thessalonians 2:4 in describing what actually happened shortly after the last Apostle passed away, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” Paul predicted this would shortly happen after his death in the congregations and as he was disputing with the Super Apostles of James, John, and Peter (Galatians 2:6, etc). Only Jesus is over a Christian congregation. And it goes beyond the power brokers who often gather at Rome, Constantinople, or Saint Louis, for a super-endowed Pope, modern day “Bishop”, or District President needs a super-endowed “Church” backing him up from which he issues his executive orders in order to keep ecumenical “peace” within a Church Body. Acts 15 is no synod. This is no “convention of all Churches” at Jerusalem’ (in Acts 15) or “Jerusalem council”, nor an “Apostolic Council,” but a congregational meeting (Acts 15:4,22). Kretzmann observes: These are the facts given us in Holy Writ, and nothing more. Only by the widest stretch of the imagination and in a very general sense, can this meeting be designated as a synod. Only two Congregations were concerned, that of Antioch being [chosen by their congregation] and that of Jerusalem by its Pleethos,…[the multitude-v. 12]. Not one delegate of any of the other Congregations was present, for there was at that time no corporate body which might have been designated as a synod. McLaughlin agrees with the above when he states “There was no ‘Church convention at Jerusalem’ (in Acts 15), but a Congregational meeting, at which representatives of another Congregation were present for consultation.” Anderson and Kuster concur, “Note that the Congregation (Church-ekkleesia, Acts 15:3 & 30) at Antioch and the Congregation (Church-ekkleesia, Acts 15:4 & 22) at Jerusalem once each sent and received delegations.” Again, McLaughlin writes, “Acts 15 is referred to as though this indicated a larger grouping, but according to its words it deals with a meeting of the Congregation at Jerusalem, under the leadership of three or four of the Apostles and the elders of the Church, before whom appeared a number of delegates of the Congregation at Antioch in Syria.” Years ago, the St. Louis faculty noted the Wisconsin error in the interpretation of this section of Acts. In a fuller context E. Pardieck and George Metzger wrote these words to the Wisconsin Synod faculty, on August 3, 1916, on behalf of the whole Missouri Synod seminary faculty: “We see that in the New Testament (Acts 19, self-evidently, is not involved here) ekkleesia is used of the Una Sancta and of the individual local Congregations: the Congregation at Corinth, etc., the Congregation in this and that one’s house, etc. Synods, as Acts 15, are not so named, but there we have deputies of Congregations, directed by Congregations, who met with the Congregation in Jerusalem, and they reported to Congregations….Thus, the local Congregation is the well-established entity: Church… as the flock of Christ, God’s people in that place, a segment of the Una Sancta.” Theodore Graebner presents the same basic argument…Graebner writes, “Acts 15 does not speak of any organized or permanent Church-body as though it described the ‘first synod,’ ‘first conference,’ etc.” What’s the upshot of all of all of this? That a synodical Church is not the depositor of all truth; that truth is not to be found in any such structure, but the truth is to be found in a local congregation (this type of Church) which bases their doctrines upon the word of God as the Thessalonian Church in Acts 17:11 does by testing these doctrines to prove that they align with the mighty Scriptures.
    • D
      DM
      3 hours ago
      The real interesting fact is that mormonism is losing males much faster than females, leaving many mormon females without "worthy" males, putting pressure on the church to re-fight for marriage rights i.e. polygamy again. Because you must do everything you can to make sure children are "born into the church".
    51

    todd: For all those citing education, critical thinking and so forth as the key reason behind the population change may I suggest you educate yourself first before posting a bunch of bumper sticker rhetoric. Do you all not realize the Mormon church owns and operates several universities and colleges including BYU which has one of the top MBA programs in the nation? Just about every Mormon I know (and I work in Salt Lake County) has at least a bachelors degree if not masters and even some PhDs. Most Mormons are very well educated and education is key value the church teaches. The population change is primary due to the economic growth Utah has experience the past couple of years. Salt Lake has seen a huge influx in job growth as a number of large companies have come here to grow as well as locally grown companies (some of which are you guessed it started by Mormons) - why - again because SLC has a very educated workforce with major universities such as: USU, U of U, Weber, UVU and yes BYU all within an hour of Salt Lake. Regarding Joseph Smith, I don't know many con men who stick around once the gig is up. What was Joseph Smith conning people into? It certainly wasn't money or fame as he and his family were chased and driven from town to town until Joseph was ultimately murdered. All of the persecution he and family suffered because of what he believed (encouraging other's to follow Christ's example) never provide him or his family any kind of extravagant lifestyle, completely the opposite for anyone willing to education themselves and spend a bit of time reading history. If you want to really find out about the Mormon church why not go and attend a Sunday or two with them for yourself and see if it matches the descriptions of the posts here. I can promise you there will be a big discrepancy. Would you take dieting advice from someone who is always 40-50 lbs overweight or financial advice from the guy who is in debt to his eyeballs, maxed out credit cards and living pay check to pay check? If not, then may I recommend not taking spiritual/religious advice from random people on the internet.