wfn.org | More than 63 Million Lutherans in the World

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 15, 2000

MORE THAN 63 MILLION LUTHERANS IN THE WORLD
00-064-FI/PM/JBN*

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With an additional 1.6 million members
registered in the past year, the number of Lutherans worldwide rose from
61.5 million in 1998 to 63.1 million in 1999, according to statistics
compiled by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) based in Geneva,
Switzerland.
     Membership in the LWF also increased, with 59.4 million Lutherans
in 1999 compared to 57.8 million the previous year.  During the same
period the number of LWF member churches rose from 124 to 128; 125 are
full members while three are associate members.
     Membership in the world's largest Lutheran church -- the Church of
Sweden -- remained steady in 1999 as compared to 1998 at 7.5 million
members.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- the second
largest in the LWF constituency -- had 5.17 million members in 1999,
showing a slight decrease of about 6,800 from the previous year's 5.18
million.
     Lutheranism grew the most in Asia last year.  In 1999 there were
more than 6.5 million Lutherans in the LWF member churches in Asia
compared to 4.8 million the previous year.
     The Protestant Christian Batak Church (Indonesia) -- the largest
of eight Lutheran churches in the island nation -- had more than 2.9
million members in 1999, compared to about 1.5 million in 1998.
Membership in the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church -- the largest
Lutheran church in the sub-continent of India -- rose from 400,000 in
1998 to 700,000 last year.
     Africa showed the most growth from 1997 to 1998 -- from 9.0
million to 9.3 million Lutherans.  Last year, LWF member churches in
Africa had more than 9.6 million members -- another notable increase of
300,000 from the previous year.
     Europe, where more than half of the world's Lutherans are still to
be found, registered a slight downward trend in 1999 compared to 1998.
LWF member churches in Europe had more than 37.01 million Lutherans in
1999, a decrease of more than 79,000 people below the previous year's
37.09 million.
     Latin American churches recorded lower membership figures in 1999
compared to the previous year.  LWF member churches in this region had
1.13 million members in 1998, this figure went down to about 834,000 in
1999.
     Of the total 8.57 million Lutherans in North America in 1999, 5.39
million were in LWF member churches, compared to the previous year's
overall of 8.58 million and 5.4 million for the latter category.
-- -- --
     The membership summary is at http://www.elca.org/co/lwf1999.html
It's based on information provided by the LWF member churches, LWF
recognized congregations and other Lutheran churches or bodies in
contact with the federation.  The figures of the previous year are
indicated for those churches that had not provided any change of
statistical data by Dec. 15, 1999.

* Pauline Mumia is English editor for Lutheran World Information in
Geneva.  Janet Bond-Nash of the LWF Office for Communication Services
compiled the statistics.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html