Number of Missionaries Serving from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

How Many Full-Time Missionaries Are Serving in The Church?

As of December 31, 2020, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 51,819 full-time missionaries serving. The graph below shows the number of missionaries from 1977 (the first year I can find the number reported) through the present. This is according to the Church’s annual statistical reports. See the chart further below for the exact numbers for each year.

The decline in 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a 23% year over year drop and was the biggest decline in the history of the available data (since 1977). In March of 2020, all missionaries throughout the world were brought to their home countries and quarantined. They were then given the opportunity the continue their mission immediately or postpone it. Roughly 80% decided to continue with their missions. (see related article – Coming Home Early because of COVID-19 Virus)

The spike in missionaries in 2013 was a 41% year over year jump and was due to the October 2012 announcement from the Church changing the age requirement for missionaries (down to 18 for young men and 19 for young women). This created a temporary influx of missionaries as a large group of young women aged 19 to 21 were suddenly eligible to serve missions.

The dip in missionaries serving from 2003 through 2012 is generally attributed to two factors: 1) a natural demographic decline in the number of youth in the missionary age range, and 2) the raising of the bar that are the standards for requirements to serve a mission as a result of Elder Ballard’s October 2002 General Conference talk, The Greatest Generation of Missionaries.

Church-Service Missionaries

At the end of 2020, the number of Church-Service missionaries that were serving was 30,527. I have only been able to find data on this since 2010. Here is the graph of that data and the full chart is further below.

Number of Missionaries Called

The number of Missionaries called to go on a mission in a given year (as opposed to the number of missionaries serving at a given time) has also been reported by the Church through the annual almanac printed by Deseret News, but I haven’t been able to get the most recent years. From what I have found, we see that those numbers also peaked in 2002 at 36,196 and has since leveled off to the present, roughly 30,000 called per year.

Data Table: Number of Full-time Missionaries Serving from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Year End	Full-Time Missionaries
1977	25,300
1978	27,669
1979	29,454
1980	29,953
1981	29,700
1982	26,300
1983	26,565
1984	27,655
1985	29,265
1986	31,803
1987	34,750
1988	36,132
1989	39,739
1990	43,651
1991	43,395
1992	46,025
1993	48,708
1994	47,311
1995	48,631
1996	52,938
1997	56,531
1998	57,853
1999	58,593
2000	60,784
2001	60,850
2002	61,638
2003	56,237
2004	51,067
2005	52,060
2006	53,164
2007	52,686
2008	52,494
2009	51,736
2010	52,225
2011	55,410
2012	58,990
2013	83,035
2014	85,147
2015	74,079
2016	70,946
2017	67,049
2018	65,137
2019	67,021
2020	51,819
2021	54,539

Source: Church Annual Statistical Reports, 1978-2020

Data Table: Number of Church-Service Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Year End	Church-Service Missionaries
2010	20,813
2011	22,299
2012	22,961
2013	24,032
2014	30,404
2015	31,779
2016	33,695
2017	36,172
2018	37,963
2019	31,333
2020	30,527
2021	36,639

Source: Church Annual Statistical Reports, 2010-2019

Number of Missionaries Called

Year	Missionaries	Year	Missionaries	Year	Missionaries	Year	Missionaries
1830	16	1876	211	1922	886	1968	7,178
1831	58	1877	154	1923	812	1969	6,967
1832	72	1878	152	1924	867	1970	7,590
1833	41	1879	179	1925	1,131	1971	8,344
1834	111	1880	219	1926	1,236	1972	7,874
1835	84	1881	199	1927	1,017	1973	9,471
1836	80	1882	237	1928	1,193	1974	9,811
1837	52	1883	248	1929	1,058	1975	14,446
1838	16	1884	205	1930	896	1976	13,928
1839	67	1885	235	1931	678	1977	14,561
1840	80	1886	209	1932	399	1978	15,860
1841	100	1887	282	1933	525	1979	16,590
1842	45	1888	242	1934	843	1980	16,600
1843	374	1889	249	1935	960	1981	17,800
1844	586	1890	283	1936	899	1982	18,260
1845	84	1891	331	1937	1,079	1983	19,450
1846	32	1892	324	1938	1,146	1984	19,720
1847	40	1893	317	1939	1,088	1985	19,890
1848	55	1894	162	1940	1,194	1986	20,798
1849	58	1895	526	1941	1,257	1987	21,001
1850	50	1896	746	1942	629	1988	22,619
1851	44	1897	922	1943	261	1989	25,609
1852	158	1898	943	1944	427	1990	26,255
1853	33	1899	1,059	1945	400	1991	24,861
1854	119	1900	796	1946	2,297	1992	28,716
1855	65	1901	522	1947	2,132	1993	28,774
1856	130	1902	848	1948	2,161	1994	27,912
1857	88	1903	658	1949	2,363	1995	29,015
1858	0	1904	699	1950	3,015	1996	31,227
1859	18	1905	716	1951	1,801	1997	33,726
1860	96	1906	1,015	1952	872	1998	33,229
1861	19	1907	930	1953	1,750	1999	33,915
1862	27	1908	919	1954	2,022	2000	34,503
1863	50	1909	1,014	1955	2,414	2001	34,684
1864	52	1910	933	1956	2,572	2002	36,196
1865	71	1911	822	1957	2,518	2003	30,467
1866	32	1912	769	1958	2,778	2004	29,548
1867	133	1913	858	1959	2,847	2005	30,587
1868	32	1914	684	1960	4,706	2006	30,653
1869	250	1915	621	1961	5,793	2007	30,384
1870	46	1916	722	1962	5,630	2008	30,312
1871	167	1917	543	1963	5,781	2009	29,168
1872	132	1918	245	1964	5,886	2010	30,563
1873	35	1919	1,211	1965	7,139
1874	98	1920	889	1966	7,021
1875	197	1921	880	1967	6,475

Source: LDS Church Almanac by Deseret News

Alin Constantinescu says:

June 19, 2013 at 10:15 pm

Jimmy, Hello

Is there any way that I can find out how many members of the Romania/Moldova Mission (former Romania-Bucharest MIssion) served missions from 1993 up until this day. The Office here does not have this information.
THank you,
Alin

Tony says:

October 26, 2013 at 11:24 am

Hello Jimmy,

Do you have a number for how many missionaries were serving in Argentina in 1977? How about how many missionaries are serving now in Argentina?

Also, Do you know the church membership in Argentina in 1977?

Thank you, Tony Jolley

Jimmy says:
October 26, 2013 at 11:39 am

Sorry Tony. I do not know.

Scott Sharp says:

November 2, 2014 at 9:10 pm

How many missionaries have been called from 2010-2014? Your chart does not have 2010,2012 or 2013.

Jimmy says:
November 12, 2014 at 9:33 pm

I’ll have to do some digging and see if I can find more up-to-date information.

Larry daugherty says:

February 5, 2017 at 10:51 am

How many missionaries were serving in 1962′ if possible also northwestern states mission. Thank youl

Isaac says:

April 8, 2019 at 11:18 am

This is Isaac

Joe Smith says:

October 29, 2019 at 7:40 pm

“As of December 31, 2108″… 2108?

John Clark says:

March 9, 2020 at 5:31 pm

The various stats do not include how many women have become missionaries with age changes of 2012. It would be of interest to know such things as how many signed up for ‘missions’ vs ‘church service’, a more ‘traditional’ location for ‘women’s work’.

Tayler says:

June 15, 2021 at 5:58 pm

Jimmy – great info! thanks for doing!
If possible, would be interesting to see % weight, or qty of each country turning out missionaries – if the data is available. Also agree, gender for full-time missionaries would be interesting to see as well! I know the data might be all over and have to piecemeal it, but if time allows and not overly burdensome, would be a fun value-add to see.

Number of Missionaries Serving from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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