As of 2021,
Jehovah's Witnesses reported a monthly average membership of approximately 8.5 million actively involved in preaching, with a peak of about 8.7 million.
Jehovah's Witnesses have an active presence in most countries, though they do not form a large part of the population of any country.
To be counted as an ''active'' member, an individual must be a ''
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
'', and report some amount of time preaching to non-members, normally at least an hour per month. Under certain circumstances, such as chronic and debilitating illness, members may report increments of 15 minutes. Jehovah's Witnesses' preaching activity is self-reported, and members are directed to submit a 'Field Service Report' each month. Baptized members who fail to submit a report every month are termed 'irregular'. Those who do not submit a report for six continuous months are termed 'inactive'.
Membership activity
For 2021, about 1.4 billion hours of preaching were reported and nearly 171,400 new members were baptized. 5.9 million home Bible studies with Jehovah's Witnesses were reported,
including Bible studies conducted by Witness parents with their children.
Jehovah's Witnesses' official statistics only count as members those who submit reports for preaching activity, usually resulting in lower membership numbers than those found by external surveys. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses report approximately 1.2 million active publishers in the United States, whereas the Pew Research Center reported that Jehovah's Witnesses make up 0.8% of the US population (approximately 2.5 million). Their official statistics indicate membership according to various territories—which they refer to as "lands"—many of which are not independent countries.
According to official statistics, nearly 21.4 million people worldwide attended Jehovah's Witnesses' 2021 observance of the
Memorial of Christ's death (also termed the ''Lord's Evening Meal''). Of those, more than 20,700 people partook of the memorial emblems of unleavened bread and wine.
Those who partake profess to be of the
144,000 "anointed" and hope to go to heaven, based on their interpretation of Revelation 14:1.
Congregations are generally organized geographically, and members are directed to attend the
Kingdom Hall
A Kingdom Hall is a place of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses. The term was first suggested in 1935 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, for a building in Hawaii. Rutherford's reasoning was that these bui ...
to which their neighborhood has been assigned, resulting in an ethnic mix generally representative of local population, though congregations based on language and ethnicity have also been formed.
2021 statistics
See also
*
Jehovah's Witnesses by country
References
External links
Interactive map showing JW adherents in individual lands in service years 2002-2008{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050504192906/http://www.ilabmedia.com/service_year/ , date=2005-05-04
Jehovah's Witnesses official websiteHow Many of Jehovah’s Witnesses Are There Worldwide?
Jehovah's Witnesses
Religious demographics