Quote:
Originally Posted by myboynoah
...I hear folks raise the "lost member file" all the time as padding the numbers of The Church. How many records are in the lost member file? Does anyone here really know? Even then, who has the right to expunge people on that list from membership in The Church without their consent? What do people expect; for The Church to issue some official breakdown of activity? People pass into and out of full activity on a regular basis, but still consider themselves Mormon. I think the significance of the "Lost Member File" is very much a red herring.
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I don't claim to know what the actual number is, but it is pretty big. Even for the United States, where the file is almost certainly smaller (as a percentage of total members), it is at least 10% of the membership. I'm sure it is larger in almost every other part of the world. I made an attempt to estimate this for the United States several years ago, and actually came up with a number closer to 20%.
Again, I know I'm not backing this up with data, but I did do the analysis, and perhaps I can get some of it out here for you to look at in the near future. I just don't have the numbers at my fingertips at my office - go figure.