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Video transcript:
Alright, buckle up, because I guarantee you that some of the things on this list are going to blow your mind. I’ve been data mining for weeks, and we’re about to look at the top 10 most shocking, revealing, surprising, and counterintuitive statistics about Latter-day Saints. Let’s do it.
Number 10. According to a 2022 PEW Research survey, Christian groups and nonreligious groups generally have negative feelings about Latter-day Saints, but the reverse is not true. Despite the negativity they receive, Latter-day Saints feel overwhelmingly positive about members of other Christian and even nonreligious groups. In fact, if you are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim, Latter-day Saints are your biggest fans! And hang tight because we’re going to circle back around to this when we talk about atheists later in this video.
Number 9. Buckle up for this one. Utah residents use more antidepressants than the national average. Now, even though less than half of Utah residents identify as Latter-day Saints, some still assert that the LDS faith causes depression — there’s just such an emphasis on perfectionism, etc. That said, “Studies typically find Latter-day Saints lower in depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts when compared to other religious groups and those of no religion.” So, a statistic about Utah is not necessarily a statistic about Latter-day Saints. But still… why is there so much depression in Utah? Well, there are lots of factors at play, but interestingly, multiple studies have shown that there is actually a strong correlation between depression and living in states at higher elevations. It’s called chronic hypobaric hypoxia, and it apparently can disrupt brain serotonin levels. Regarding toxic perfectionism, a recent study found that Latter-day Saints generally struggle with perfectionism just as much as people from other religions do. Interestingly, that same study found that atheists, agnostics, and former Latter-day Saints tend to struggle with toxic perfectionism at significantly higher rates than people affiliated with a religion.
Number 8. Demographically, Latter-day Saints in the United States are mostly white. But, that is quickly changing. While there was hardly any change between 2007 and 2014, between 2014 and 2024, white membership dropped by 12 percent. That’s not to say that membership dropped by 12% but the ratio of white members versus non-white members dropped 12%. And despite some of the fraught racial history of the Church, today Latter-day Saints score higher than any other Christian group in the belief that racial diversity strengthens our country.
Number 7. This one was totally unexpected. Today, Latter-day Saints believe that both men and women use priesthood power, but only men are ordained to a priesthood office. According to a 2011 survey, the vast majority of both male and female members didn’t have a problem with male-only ordination. But interestingly, the minority view that women should be ordained to the priesthood was an opinion held mostly… by men.
Number 6. In the same survey, Latter-day Saints were asked to rank how important certain life goals were to them. 50% of Americans — only half of the general public — said that being a good parent was one of the most important things in life. Among Latter-day Saints that number jumps to 81%. Only 35% of the general public considered having a successful marriage to be one of the most important things in life. Latter-day Saints more than doubled that percentage, coming in at 73%. Latter-day Saints want to be good parents, and they want successful marriages.
Number 5. It’s been a hard decade for religion everywhere, but check this out. In 2017, Church membership shrank in 9 states. In 2018, it shrank in 13 states. At the height of COVID, between 2020 and 2021, membership shrank in 22 states. In 2024, guess how many states experienced a net loss in membership? Only one (get it together, Wyoming). All of that said, while the Protestant U.S. population has unfortunately declined by 11% over the last 17 years, and the Catholic population by 5% (which I don’t like to see), Latter-day Saint membership has held steady at about 2% of the population.
Number 4. How important is the Bible to Latter-day Saints, really? After all, we don’t believe in sola scriptura. We don’t believe in biblical inerrancy. And we do believe in scripture beyond the Bible. That has given some people the impression that we don’t take the Bible all that seriously. The data says otherwise. Only about 46% of Mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians said the Bible was very or extremely important in their lives. Latter-day Saints? 80%. We’re right up there with Evangelicals and historically black Protestant churches in this category.
On top of that, when a 2010 survey quizzed religious and non-religious groups on biblical knowledge, Latter-day Saints scored higher than any other group. I’m not bringing that up to brag, but rather to make the point that the Bible is not gathering dust in Latter-day Saint homes.
Number 3. I’ve actually got 3 separate data-points here that I think are somewhat related, and all fascinating: According to PEW Research, Latter-day Saints are the only Christian group that had net-positive feelings towards atheists. And even though Latter-day Saints are highly religious, they believe (more so than any Christian group surveyed) that people who do not believe in God can still be moral and have good values. They also believe more than any other religious or non-religious group surveyed that science and religion are compatible.
Number 2. As you know, over 100 years ago, Latter-day Saints used to practice polygamy. But how common was it? Some leaders had lots of wives and families, in part because they could economically support lots of wives and families. But this wasn’t the norm. As it turns out, only about one out of every 5 men actually practiced plural marriage. This map separates the practice out based on location in 1870, showing that even though polygamy was an accepted practice, generally a little less than 25% of Utahns actually lived in a polygamous household.
Number 1. Latter-day Saints don’t drink coffee, tea, or alcohol, so we have developed somewhat of a reputation for drinking a lot of soda. But, how much soda do Latter-day Saints actually drink? Well, the best data I could find on this comes from a couple of CDC surveys on sugar-sweetened beverage intake — be advised that the data may be somewhat skewed because it includes all sugary drinks — not just soda. Also, again, keep in mind that less than half of Utahns are Latter-day Saints, and also that most Latter-day Saints live outside the United States altogether. So this is a “Mormon bubble” issue, but if we rank the states by sugary drink consumption, Utah comes in 45th place. Utah’s favorite soda? They’re doing the Dew.
Now, a lot of these statistics represent things that are changing over time, and that is a major theme of this Top 10 episode, where we talk about Latter-day Saint teachings/practices/policies/and perhaps even doctrines that could change in the future. You’re gunna wanna see it. Go check it out.