New study confirms many LDS stereotypes [Lds church bloats stats; men defecting @ high rates]

A new study coming out of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., indicates that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States are predominantly Republican, overwhelmingly white, well-educated, prosperous and have larger-than-average families. The study also found that Mormon women are less likely to work outside the home than other American women.

The Mormon Social Science Association is an independent organization that was created to foster the scholarly study of Mormon life.

"This is a timely academic study that provides hard evidence on the social profile of a community which is unfamiliar to Americans living outside the Rocky Mountain region," said Trinity professor Barry Kosmin, who helped to lead the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey upon which the Mormon study was based.

According to the survey, 3.2 million Americans identified themselves as members of the LDS Church in 2008. Official LDS Church statistics indicate that number was actually about 5.9 million. The difference is attributed to the fact that the church counts total members on record, while the researchers only count those who actually identify themselves as church members.

The discrepancy is also manifest in the population numbers for the state of Utah, with the church claiming 68 percent of Utah's citizenry in 2008 and the study finding 57 percent. But however you count it, "Mormons are the only religious group in the U.S. today that forms a numerical majority of any one state's population," the report said.

According to the report, "young men in the Mormon Culture Region are defecting at substantially higher rates than young women, creating a growing gender imbalance and a surplus of Mormon women. In Utah, self-identified Mormon women outnumber men by a ratio of 3 to 2."...

From the article: According to the survey, 3.2 million Americans identified themselves as members of the LDS Church in 2008. Official LDS Church statistics indicate that number was actually about 5.9 million. The difference is attributed to the fact that the church counts total members on record, while the researchers only count those who actually identify themselves as church members. The discrepancy is also manifest in the population numbers for the state of Utah, with the church claiming 68 percent of Utah's citizenry in 2008 and the study finding 57 percent.

Well this part of the article, buried in the jump section of the online article at the Lds church-owned newspaper, shows that the Lds church probably overestimates its church membership by almost half (3.2 million actual as of '08 vs. their figures, which includes all "jack Mormons," @ 5.9 million)

From the article: According to the report, "young men in the Mormon Culture Region are defecting at substantially higher rates than young women, creating a growing gender imbalance and a surplus of Mormon women. In Utah, self-identified Mormon women outnumber men by a ratio of 3 to 2."

This ratio, coupled with other news coming out of the Lds church this year, shows that it may be almost impossible for many Lds women (particularly those over 30) to find an active Mormon husband!

See:
* Mormon men waiting longer to marry, worrying church officials
* LDS Church drops 'student' wards, stakes for 'YSA' units

This is also greatly exacerbated by the reality that men across the board (Mormon and non-Mormon) are delaying marriage...which, in turn, is why at the April 2011 General Conference the Mormon church holds twice a year, they made a huge pitch for young men to marry...
See: LDS Church drops 'student' wards, stakes for 'YSA' units

From that Spring 2011 article: Elder Snow noted the new YSA unit restructuring does provide enhanced social opportunities for the young adults, acknowledging the emphasis on pursuing marriage and family as a key topic from the church's recent general conference. "We'd like to see them happily married and creating families," he said, adding "we had some pretty direct messages in conference — they weren't sugar-coated."

Of course, this doesn't address the over-30 crowd, where Lds women have even slimmer marriage prospects. A BYU Web site, citing a Goodman and Heaton study, said:

Furthermore, single LDS men and women are "mismatched on salient demographic characteristics. Single women over 30 have higher levels of education, occupation, and Church activity than single men. For example, never-married women over 30 are more likely to have four years of college (42 percent compared to 18 percent for never-married men) and professional occupations (70 percent compared to 38 percent)" (Goodman and Heaton, pp. 90-91). Goodman and Heaton conclude that "marriage to an active male is demographically impossible for many active single females over 30. And even when there are available males, they may possess other characteristics that rule them out as potential mates.” (p. 91)
Source: http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Single_Adults

Lds women. Be realistic. If you want to marry, you're going to have to start looking at a guy outside the Mormon faith.

Tell us. Would the Mormon gods, if they wanted your families to live forever as a family, make it virtually impossible for so many Lds women to either find...
...a faithful Mormon male who actually wants to marry?
...a faithful Mormon male period? (One who is actually "celestial material"?)

And even if you find plenty of faithful single males in your ward, are they (a) a personality match? and (b) "close enough" within your age bracket?

Yes, well, we know what the Mormon gods said last time this happened...

Hmmm...does that mean polygamy is "around the corner" for Mormonism again? If "OK" in the 19th and 20th centuries, why not the 21st?

You know, TN, I'm sure Lds male leaders may have implied what you just said in the 19th century. But actually the reverse was true: More Mormon men in the West than women!

Some contemporary Mormons plus their allies assume that some glut of widowed women was the 19th century "reality" and that therefore, men just had to “step up” and “marry” them as a “plural wife.”

According to the Changing World of Mormonism, pp. 224-225: [LDS} "Apostle” John A. Widtsoe, who was born during the polygamy years (early 1870s) stated:

’We do not understand why the Lord commanded the practice of plural marriage.’ (Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, p.393). One of the most popular explanations is that the church practiced polygamy because there was a surplus of women. The truth is, however, that there were less women than men. Apostle Widtsoe admitted that there was no surplus of women”: 'The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church.’.. The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utah, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United States, ... there was no surplus of women'” (Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 1960, pp.390-92," as cited in Changing World, pp. 224-225).

The reason for the disparity is that the women don’t have to work overtime, work a 2nd job, and get an ulcer trying to figure out how to raise 7 kids on a K-Mart salary.

And, living in Utah myself, add in the incredible peer pressure that the men are under to keep up with the Joneses and appear wealthy when they’re not. No wonder so many guys are throwing in the towel. Most jobs have completely chopped overtime and finding something on the side is near impossible.

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