Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints enjoyed a new reason this week to celebrate: Their faith recently recorded the biggest jump in convert baptisms in its 195-year history.
“This is remarkable,” apostle Quentin L. Cook said Thursday, according to a report in the Church News. “In the last 12 months ending May 31st, the Lord’s hastening of his work resulted in the largest number of convert baptisms in any 12-month period in this dispensation.”
Cook was addressing the annual seminar in Provo for new mission leaders held at the church’s flagship Missionary Training Center.
The growth is not just in Africa or South America, Cook told the missionary couples. “Comparing the first quarter of this year with the first quarter of 2024, every region of the world has seen at least a 20% increase in convert baptisms.”
The apostle is further quoted in the Church News as saying that “the rate of increase for new members attending sacrament meeting [Latter-day Saints’ principal weekly worship service] was even higher.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Apostle Quentin L. Cook, speaking at the Missionary Training Center in Provo in 2023, says the church recently set a record in convert baptisms.
‘Highly encouraging’
The news delighted independent researcher Matt Martinich, a Colorado-based Latter-day Saint who tracks church growth.
“These reports are highly encouraging after decades of stagnation or decline in annual convert baptisms,” Martinich wrote on his blog at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com. “From 2000 to 2019, the average was 264,769 per year. The church’s all-time high for the most converts ever baptized in a single calendar year was 330,877 in 1990. The next highest years were 1996 (321,385), 1989 (318,940) and 1997 (317,798).”
Last year, the number of convert baptisms (308,682) was the highest reported in nearly three decades.
Cook never revealed the exact number of converts baptized in the recent record-breaking period, but it would have to be more than 330,877.
“If the number of convert baptisms increases by 20% in 2025,” Martinich estimated, that would be 370,418 — “approximately 40,000 more than the previous all-time high.”
And if that trajectory “continues into 2026,” he argued, the church “may witness the highest sustained growth in convert baptisms since the early 1990s — a dramatic reversal after two decades of stagnation and slowing membership growth rates.”
The researcher was impressed by Cook’s statements about holding onto these members, pointing to the apostle’s remark that “sacrament meeting attendance for new converts was an even higher rate of increase than the total number of converts baptized.”
Longer-term challenges remain
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Still, Martinich noted, “retention five to 10 years after baptism has historically — and continues to — remain a major challenge.”
And he remained cautious about this reported momentum.
“While these new figures are the highest since the 1990s, at the time when the church reported its most significant numerical increases in convert baptisms,” Martinich wrote, “it is worth remembering that many of those convert booms did not result in sustained activity or stake [regional] viability.”
The future impact of the current growth will likely depend, he concluded, “on improvements in post-baptism support and doctrinal engagement.”
