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Comment by HeyLaughingBoy | Hacker News Reader

There are Mormons outside America?

They go on missions, very frequently outside of America, as a standard part of their early adult life. Learning the local language is pretty much a requirement.

It’s not spreading though.

I live in a small town in Guatemala and the mormon church here is growing very rapidly. According to Google, they're growing at 1.5% annually, which means 255,036 new Mormons every year. However, a church with even a hundred people can heavily sway a small, remote community.

I agree it's not "spreading" per se, but their numbers are respectable among proselytizing religions today. When Islam reached a 1.8% growth rate in the 2000s we were inundated with proclamations that it was the fastest growing religion in the world (eg: https://foreignpolicy.com/2007/05/14/the-list-the-worlds-fas...).

In some places it is more effective than others; Mormons are very present in the Pacific islands, for example.

I know that they go on missions. My question was regarding the "Mormon-American" framing which suggests that Mormonism exists in other countries, which I was not aware of.

Very much so, in fact, more Mormons live outside of the US than within the US. The church reports a population of 16,663,663 with 6,592,195 of those living within the US. (got those numbers from Wikipedia).

This article from 10 years ago reports that 56% of Mormon live outside the US and Canada at that time- https://www.deseret.com/2013/8/30/20524833/the-majority-of-m...

Yes, in fact a majority of Mormons are outside the USA

Yes and no. It's very minor outside of the US except for some island nations in the Pacific.

Mormon membership numbers of actual adherents are likely 20% to 40% of membership claimed based on "inactivity" rates (and people leaving).

I learned about the pacific island nations, after I learned that the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii is owned and operated by the LDS Church.

Samoa is a big one I guess.

It was a jarring experience going to see a luau there and seeing white kids playing the main roles in their show. Pretty terrible place, really.

Big church right in the middle of Paris. On prime, riverside real estate. That can't be cheap and last time I passed by it was missionaries and exchange students coming in and out.

Wealthiest religion in the world, they have massive real estate holdings.

Wait, isn't this the Catholic church, having accumulated wealth for centuries?

Most of the Mormons at my (US) high school were Mexican immigrants to the US, anecdotally.

Central America is their largest growing sector IIRC.

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