Mormonism

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in 1830. By the year 2000, there were more than 11 million church members, who are commonly referred to as Latter-day Saints (LDS) or Mormons. International expansion of the church has been significant since 1960 when 90 percent of the membership lived in the United States. In 1999, only 12 percent of Latter-day Saints lived in Utah, the world headquarters of the church; 52 percent of members lived outside the United States in more than 160 countries. South America, Central America, and Mexico contain more than 60 percent of new church members; 9 percent also come from Asian countries (Heaton 1992). In 2000, the church reached an historic milestone of having more non-English-speaking than English-speaking members (Todd 2000).