In SRC American National Election studies, Jehovah's Witnesses ranked first among all religious groups in the percentage of their adherents who believe in Biblical literalness (from combined 1960, '64, '80, '84 data. Source: Classifying Protestant Denominations, Tom W. Smith, October 1986, GSS Methodological Report No. 43. General Social Survey project directed by James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith. A later version of this paper was published in Review of
Religious Research, 31 (March, 1990), 225-245).
No denomination in the world is responsible for as many hours of proselytizing as the Jehovah's Witnesses. In the most recent year reported, the Witnesses provided over one billion "volunteer hours spent in public Bible educational work." [Source: Public Affairs Office of Jehovah's Witnesses]
By winning more court cases in the Supreme Court than any other religious group, Jehovah's Witnesses are responsible for many of the freedoms of speech and religion that all Americans now have. [Source: Tony Mauro, "Thank Jehovah's Witnesses for speech freedoms", USA Today, 30 May 2000.]
Their Public Affairs Office mentions some research done by sociologists indicating the unusual degree to which the Jehovah's Witnesses represent a successful, cohesive, distinctive global tribe. For example:
After studying social life in Zambia for a year and a half, a researcher from the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, concluded that "Jehovah's Witnesses experience greater success than members of other denominations in maintaining stable marital unions . . . Husband and wife are encouraged to be individuals with integrity . . . This overriding demand for integrity cements marriage."
Note about JW adherent/member/publisher statistics
The national-level data for Jehovah's Witnesses presented on this page come from their own yearly reports. Jehovah's Witness records are known to be exceptionally precise and reliable. But it should be kept in mind that these figures are based on "average monthly publishers," i.e. the average through the year of monthly counts of "publishers." Publishers are Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing who have submitted a report of their proselyting activity during the month.
This standard for being counted as a "member" means the Jehovah's Witness statistics are perhaps the most conservative figures presented by any religious group. A more realistic measure of how many "adherents" the group has can probably be obtained by looking at their Memorial attendance figures. These figures are simply the count of people at their yearly communion meeting. Attendance at a yearly meeting may not seem like a high standard for being counted as an adherent, but it is actually the standard used by groups such as Anglicans to issue estimates of "active" membership.
In practice, a large number of people counted in Memorial attendance figures but not counted as publishers may simply be guests or investigators. But an even larger number are people who consider themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, but aren't currently fulfilling duties required to be counted as a publisher. Roughly speaking, one can either look at the Memorial attendance figures, or double the number of publishers they announce, in order to estimate the number of people in a region who consider themselves part of the religion.
It may also be noted that Jehovah's Witness reports summarize data based on "lands" and not strictly by nations as defined by the United Nations. In fact, Hawaii and Alaska are still listed separately from the United States.
Top 20 Lands with Highest Proportion of Jehovah's Witnesses (Publishers), 1998
Land
Number of publishers
Percent
Saint Helena
160
3.19%
Guadeloupe
7,953
1.94
Niue
35
1.68
Saint Eustatius
19
1.27
Saint Maarten
285
1.19
Martinique
4,054
1.13
Curaco
1,552
1.06
Zambia
104,096
1.03
Virgin Islands (British)
159
0.94
Barbados
2,375
0.91
French Guiana
1,485
0.91
Tahiti
1,933
0.88
Norfolk Island
16
0.85
New Caledonia
1,676
0.84
Cuba
82,258
0.74
Turks and Caicos Islands
117
0.72
Cook Islands
135
0.71
Puerto Rico
26,727
0.70
San Marino
178
0.70
Bermuda
431
0.70
Source: Watchtower Society annual report, 1998.
Top 20 Lands with Most Jehovah's Witnesses (Publishers), 1998
Land
Number of publishers
Percent
USA
1,050,238
0.39%
Mexico
518,307
0.54
Brazil
487,661
0.30
Italy
232,145
0.40
Japan
222,912
0.18
Nigeria
222,306
0.21
Germany
171,704
0.21
Britain
131,981
0.23
Philippines
128,134
0.18
Poland
126,635
0.33
Argentina
121,829
0.37
France
121,498
0.21
Canada
113,136
0.37
Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo)
108,710
0.22
Zambia
104,096
1.03
Spain
103,784
0.26
Ukraine
101,755
0.20
Colombia
100,488
0.25
Russia
100,012
0.07
South Korea
85,983
0.19
Source: Watchtower Society annual report, 1998.
Countries on both lists (highest percent and highest number of Witnesses): Zambia.
Conceivably, this could mean that Zambia is the world's most JW nation. Cuba almost appears on both lists, as it is ranked 15th in percentage of Jehovah's Witnesses, and 22nd in number.
Top 20 U.S. States with Highest Proportion of Jehovah's Witnesses (self-identification), 1990
These figures represent people who cited Jehovah's Witnesses when asked to name their religion, in a nationwide phone survey of 113,000 people. These figures are perhaps twice the level of active "publishers", but this can not be confirmed because state-level statistics from the organization are not available.
State
Percent
New Hampshire
1.90%
Washington
1.40
Idaho
1.20
New Mexico
1.20
California
1.10
Oregon
1.10
Arizona
1.00
Iowa
1.00
Mississippi
1.00
New York
1.00
Delaware
0.90
Florida
0.90
Georgia
0.90
Maryland
0.90
Michigan
0.90
New Jersey
0.90
Ohio
0.90
Montana
0.80
North Carolina
0.80
South Carolina
0.80
This data set is from the 1990 National Survey of Religious Identification, conducted by the City University of New York, based on self-identification, as collected through a nationwide phone survey of 113,000 people.
Webpage created circa April 1999. Last updated 22 March 2002.
Neither Adherents.com, nor any of the webmasters or authors of this site, are Jehovah's Witnesses. None have ever been affiliated with the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Watchtower Society. Adherents.com is not affiliated with the Watchtower Society or any other religious organization.