With 55 new missions coming on line, opportunities abound for more LDS Church growth

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently announced plans to add 55 missions across the globe in 2026, which brings the total tally of missions for the 17.5 million member faith to 506.

That’s the most new missions in a year since 2013, when the Utah-based faith created 58 missions. At the same time, the current corps of full-time missionaries has topped 84,000, and church leaders recently reduced the minimum age to 18 for Latter-day Saint women to serve missions.

In addition, convert baptisms during the first six months of 2025 ran 20% higher than the first half of last year.

So what do all these positive numbers mean when it comes to the pace and prospects of church growth now and in the future?

Independent researcher Matt Martinich, who tracks such data for the websites cumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, has analyzed the new missions in depth.

Here are lightly edited excerpts from Martinich’s interview with The Salt Lake Tribune’s “Mormon Land” podcast:

Did the announcement of these new missions surprise you?

It did surprise me. I didn’t think there were going to be that many missions. I was thinking more like maybe 30 to 40, like there was back in 2024.

Besides the higher number, what surprised you the most?

The geographic distribution of these new missions. If we look at other years when we’ve had many new missions created at once, typically, we’ve seen that pretty heavy in areas that have a significant Latter-day Saint presence — particularly in Utah, southern Idaho, Arizona. This time around, we did not see that. So out of these 55 new missions, none of them is planned for Utah or Idaho, except for extreme northern Idaho.We’re seeing instead a lot in places in Africa and other locations with large populations that have historically been pretty underserved by mission resources.

Where are the new missions being created?

Of the 55 new missions planned for 2026, about 31% are in Africa. The next world region that has the most new missions being organized is North America. There’ll be eight new missions in Latin America. In Asia, there’ll be six. In Oceania, there will be five.

What does that say about church growth in those areas?

It tells us a few things. With these new missions, we’re seeing a much more equal distribution of missions across world regions, particularly targeting areas with larger populations.…The biggest one is for Africa. The church has been growing tremendously in Africa, and this is a decision that seems to be motivated not just by meeting the current demands, but also expanding. If we look at the number of new missions created from 2013 — which was the year we had the most new missions ever created in Africa — there were five new missions. If we look at 2024, when there were 36 new missions created worldwide, there were about eight or nine new missions in Africa. Now, next year it’s going to be 17. That’s a pretty big, steady increase in Africa to meet needs there and present opportunities that are present throughout the continent.

Are there enough missionaries now and coming in the pipeline to fill these missions?

With 84,000, the church would need to create this many new missions to keep it [with each mission having between 150 and 200 missionaries]. There…is the idea that the church may be creating these missions to make it look more impressive that the church is growing so much. That doesn’t really hold any merit. They’re creating missions based on the number of missionaries serving. Tracking the number of missionaries per mission over time, those two metrics really mirror each other quite well, although the [number of missions] tends to be a bit more stable and has to be smoothed out, whereas the number of missionaries serving can be a bit more spiky over the years.

What African country is growing the most?

The expansion of the church in the Democratic Republic of Congo is something that surpasses anything the church has seen in decades. Twenty years ago, there was one mission in the entire country, and next year, there’ll be nine missions. So that is pretty phenomenal mobilization of mission resources in a country that has some of the highest member activity and convert retention rates in the world. It is really a powerhouse when it comes to church growth, and it’s not just numbers on paper.…[This also] creates a lot of challenges with leadership development. When you have so many new members who have very little training, it requires a lot of support and help from area presidencies and current leaders and past leaders and so forth.

What about other African nations?

One that really surprised me was a new mission in Mozambique, based in Nampula. That’s a city with one stake, with six wards and two branches in that stake. Very few members. And that’s the trend we see with these mission announcements. Senegal is another example. In Senegal, there are 300 members in five small branches, and that’s it. The Gambia has two branches. Guinea-Bissau likely will be a part of it. If we look at how new missions have been created in Africa, even in the recent past, typically there are several stakes and 10,000 members who live in that area that’s being affected by the new missions. So we’re seeing much more aggressive national outreach expansion than we have seen historically.

How is the retention rate in the Philippines, which used to be very low?

There are 26 missions currently in the Philippines. There will be 31 once the five new missions are created. I believe that’s the most new missions created in the Philippines in a single year ever….As to retention, the Philippines is a remarkable success story. Until about 15 years ago, it had a lot of retention issues. Since then, the number of stakes in the Philippines has increased from about 80 as of the last week or two, to 139. If you think about the new standards for creating stakes, that’s a remarkable improvement with convert retention and member activity.

What do you see as some missed opportunities, places where you’d like to see the church invest more proselytizing energy and resources?

This year, the church created one new mission in Europe, and I believe it’s called the European Central Turkic-speaking mission. And it’s for outreach to people who speak Farsi and Turkic languages. I think that is an area that could use some attention in terms of mission planning. Going forward, when you have mission resources that are specifically tailored to particular languages that can make things much more effective.…One of the ones that stood out to me was East Timor, a predominantly Christian population in a remote area in Indonesia. There’s one branch in the whole country. Pretty small, a tiny church presence. There are places like that which could really benefit from a mission, because there’s opportunity for growth with receptivity, and government restrictions on religious freedom are quite minimal or not there at all. Things change, you know, and that’s the important thing to keep in mind with these missions being created. Something 20 years ago that maybe would not have been effective might be effective now. Look at Tonga as an example. When the church created its first mission in Tonga in the 1880s, it was incredibly unsuccessful. They baptized only a couple dozen converts, and they closed the mission because it was so unsuccessful. Today, the church in Tonga is almost two-thirds of the national population. That’s why it’s important that these shifts and resources be dynamic to hit when the iron is hot.

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