Membership history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

After 1990, average annual growth again slowed steadily to a rate around 2.2% for the ten years ending 2015, approximately double the average world population growth rate of 1.1% for the same period.

The growth rate has not been greater than 3% per year in the 21st century and has decelerated steadily since 2012.

In May 2019, however, Phil Zuckerman, Ph.D., of Psychology Today expressed skepticism of how the LDS Church reports robust growth in membership, noting that while church membership was reported to be rising, separate analysis conducted by journalist Jana Riess argued that US retention, religious participation, and belief have been decelerating since 2007.

[3][4] Book reviewer Stephen Cranney stated in his review of The Next Mormons that the book "fill[s] the need for a large, representative Latter-day Saint sample.

"[4] Cranney also stated that "Media outlets and others will occasionally perform one-off surveys that gather Latter-day Saint responses to specific (often political) issues, but generally social scientists, the media, and the public are flying in the dark when it comes to finding representative numbers about Latter-day Saint attitudes and beliefs.