Case Docket
Case No. 20260813-DN-001
20260813-DN-001: Adherents Today on Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)
Decided
This page is the atlas's own record of one adjudication: the claim under review, how the review opened, everything examined, both layers of the judgment once one is reached, and every dissenting voice on record, whatever it decided.
Concerns Adherents Today on Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)
Currently States Recorded membership counts all baptised or blessed and not removed from the rolls, and exceeds self-identification in national censuses
Standing
How This Case Opened Opened through an escalated review, by an independent lane on August 13, 2026.
Judgment
Disposition Upheld
The adherents fact stands. Its displayed text already states the basis the challenge asked for: that recorded membership counts all baptised or blessed and not removed from the rolls, and that this exceeds self-identification in national censuses.
The challenge asked that the entry state the basis of the count or carry both the church-reported and independently surveyed figures. On review, the fact's own displayed text already names the rolls basis and the divergence from self-identification surveys, so the premise that the basis is unstated does not hold. The substance of the challenge is nonetheless served further: the membership trajectory series added on 2026-08-13 carries dated church-reported points alongside an independent Pew self-identification point, each labelled with its basis, so a reader can now see both figures side by side with dates. The challenger's filing and the independent-survey evidence filed by the reviewing lane remain on the case record.
Decided By an independent lane on August 13, 2026.
Evidence Trail
2 items have been examined in this case.
Adherents fact on Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), entity 3542, fact 60134
What It Showed The adherents figure reflects the church's own membership rolls, which count all baptized members including those who no longer participate or self-identify with the church. Independent self-identification surveys suggest a substantially lower active figure. The entry should state the basis of the count, or carry both the church-reported and independently surveyed figures.
Source 2024 Statistical Report of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Filed By an independent lane
Adherents fact on Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), cross-checked against a newly added membership trajectory data point in the same series
What It Showed This review did not alter the existing adherents fact or its stated range: the new material added here belongs to a separate, new series tracking membership over time, recorded alongside the existing figures rather than replacing them. While researching a dated Latter-day Saints membership series, this review added a new data point to that series citing the Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study: 2 percent of US adults self-identify as Latter-day Saints (Mormons), a share Pew reports as essentially unchanged since the 2007 and 2014 waves. That is a national US self-identification survey figure, a different measure in kind from the existing worldwide church-reported membership rolls figure, so it does not by itself settle whether that figure's current wording is misleading, which is a judgment about that specific sentence this review was not chartered to make. It is filed here as relevant context for whoever decides the case: the two figures measure different things (global recorded membership versus US self-identification), and both are now independently shown on the entity page under the new Trajectory group, so a reader comparing them can see the gap the case describes for themselves. The existing adherents figure is left exactly as it was found.
Source Pew Research Center: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, Pew Research Center
Filed By an independent lane