Membership and Publishing Statistics
Membership
The following chart represents worldwide membership statistics as of August 2008. A report broken down by country is also available.
| Annual Worldwide Statistics |
|
Attendance at the annual Memorial of Christ’s death |
17,790,631 |
|
Total volunteer hours spent in public Bible educational work |
1,488,658,249 |
|
Average weekly home Bible courses taught |
7,133,760 |
|
Practicing members* |
7,124,443 |
|
New members baptized |
289,678 |
|
Increase over 2007 |
2.1 percent |
|
Branch offices |
115 |
|
Congregations |
103,267 |
* While other religious groups count their membership by occasional or annual attendance, this figure reflects only those who are actively involved in the public Bible educational work.
|
Worldwide Publishing and Translating
Jehovah’s Witnesses have developed an unparalleled worldwide organization capable of providing free Bible education to all who wish to understand the Bible better. Since the 1870’s, the publishing agencies of Jehovah’s Witnesses have produced a truly immense quantity of Bible literature, as can be seen from the details below.
Languages
The Watch Tower Society has produced literature in 475 languages and calls on the services of more than 2,400 volunteers to assist with translation worldwide.
In the early 1980’s, a team of volunteers developed the world’s first multilanguage electronic phototypesetting system, which currently has the capacity to process material in 644 languages, using 29 alphabets and character sets.
English Braille literature has been produced since 1912. Publications are regularly produced in nine Braille languages.
For the deaf, various video publications have been produced in American Sign Language and 39 other sign languages.
Bibles
Since 1926, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania has published more than 159 million copies of the Bible in 74 languages.
Magazines, Books, and Research Aids
The Watchtower, the primary Bible study aid for members of the faith, has an average printing of 37 million, giving it the largest circulation of any religious magazine in the world. It is published in 174 languages. All these editions are translated and printed for simultaneous release.
Awake!, published in 82 languages, is a general-interest newsmagazine with a religious slant and has an average printing of 36 million.
What Does the Bible Really Teach? is the introductory textbook used extensively in the home Bible Study program of Jehovah’s Witnesses. More than 99 million copies have been produced in 189 languages since the book was released in 2005.
The Watch Tower Society has produced Bible encyclopedias, concordances, and study guides for in-depth research on specific Bible topics.
Internet
Since 1997, Jehovah’s Witnesses have maintained and updated the Web site www.watchtower.org, which provides accurate information about their beliefs and activities. It contains a selection of tracts, brochures, and articles from the journals The Watchtower and Awake! As of January 2009, the Web site includes published educational information in 376 languages, from English, Chinese, French, and Spanish to Assyrian, Bengali, Portuguese, and Twi, as well as videos in American, Brazilian, Colombian, Japanese, and Russian sign languages. Among other helpful details, the Web site makes available the postal addresses of branch offices around the globe, where people can obtain more information or request personal assistance from Witnesses locally. Audio downloads of publications are available on www.jw.org, and both sites link to this Web site, www.jw-media.org, especially designed as an online resource for the media.
Audio and Video Publications
The Watch Tower Society has produced 21 documentary videos on a variety of historical and Biblical topics, in 78 languages.
The complete Bible is available in the MP3 format in English and a number of other languages. Introductory textbooks, brochures, and current issues of The Watchtower and Awake! are available in the compact disc or MP3 formats.
Additional information about our publications
Copyright © 2009 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.
