For a long time, the Mormon population in Utah has been slowly declining, but now The Salt Lake Tribune says that trend is reversing.
Salt Lake County’s population became more Mormon in 2013, reversing a slow and steady decline observed since at least the mid-1990s.
The state’s biggest county is now 51.41 percent LDS.
And Utah overall saw its share of Mormon adherents tick upward for the fourth straight year, reaching 62.64 percent.
These are among the findings from statistics The Salt Lake Tribune obtained through a public-records request.
They add:
In 22 of the state’s 29 counties, that percentage rose last year. The biggest driver appears to be the reduction in people moving to the state since the economic collapse in late 2007 and early 2008, according to demographer Pam Perlich at the University of Utah.
Before that, The Tribune had tracked a long, slow descent in the percentage of Utahns on Mormon membership rolls.
Since 2009, that trend has reversed, and the LDS percentage has been inching up. In 2005, more than 36,000 people moved into Utah, according to statistics compiled by Perlich. That influx dropped to below 5,000 a year this decade.
See the article here.
