Percent LDS by County

[CCSLC]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

They continue counting you unless you go through the process of mailing church HQ, requesting your name as removed from their rolls and attending the necessary interviews to determine these are your actual wishes.

Legally, a church is required to remove you from their membership records upon receipt of your written request. This is why web sites that advise people on how to leave a church often recommend sending your notice via certified mail; the moment an official representative signs for it, you're off. In the 1980s there were a couple relatively high-profile lawsuits that settled this question decisively in the legal world, and the impacted churches ended up paying damages to the people they were continuing to harass with threats about salvation, requirements to leave, etc. after receiving written requests.

In regard to leaving Mormonism: the letter "confirming" your request, visits by local leaders to ensure it was really you, the discussions and interviews... they're all technically meaningless, despite what leaders may say. You don't have to respond or acknowledge anything once your written request has been received.

[Mtn. States Resident]

Q UOTE=Katzpur;37479318]This new map just came out and should be interesting to people moving in to Utah and wondering which areas have the highest and lowest percentages of LDS residents.



It looks like Salt Lake County (where Salt Lake City is located) is now 51% LDS.
Weber County (where Ogden is located) is 54% LDS.
Utah County (where Orem and Provo are located) is now 82% -- the highest of all the counties.
Washington (where St. George is located) is 62%.
Summit (where Park City is located) is just 30% LDS.

Utah, as a whole, is just under 63% LDS. I hope this information will be helpful.[/quote]

Great post Katz. I couldn't rep you again.

So what's up with Grand Co. Being 27% LDS? That will destroy the myths many post.

Two other factors when people compare the percentage of one county to another are size of the county and density. Some of the higher % rural populations may live 30 or more miles from a town to get gas and maybe some groceries. Much further from a Walmart or shopping.

And in the Wasatch Metro, it's really neighborhood dependent.

Some day it would be nice to know the mean age of those counties. Having 8K babies born annually in UT County is not exactly like having 250 non LDS families of 4 people for neighbors (I know that is just 1,000 people). My point really was how many in UT County and even Salt Lake and Cache counties are married college students who move in June? These stats are a good place to start, but breaking them into age group, I believe, would show even greater differences.

MSR

[CCSLC]

Originally Posted by Mtn. States Resident

So what's up with Grand Co. Being 27% LDS? That will destroy the myths many post.

Some day it would be nice to know the mean age of those counties. Having 8K babies born annually in UT County is not exactly like having 250 non LDS families of 4 people for neighbors (I know that is just 1,000 people). My point really was how many in UT County and even Salt Lake and Cache counties are married college students who move in June? These stats are a good place to start, but breaking them into age group, I believe, would show even greater differences.

MSR

Moab has long been full of liberal, Democratic, and non-Mormon people. Grand County, along with Summit County, voted more Democratic than even Salt Lake in the 2008 election, as well as in 2012.

As far as your second point, we don't even have to break people into cohorts to know that the LDS numbers are slightly high. The religion numbers come from the LDS church but the population numbers come from the census. The church counts college students in their college wards (often "singles" wards), but the census population estimates exclude college students who are not year-round residents. The impact on these percentages, therefore, is that the share of LDS is reported higher than it actually is.

[easternerDC]

[quote=M
So what's up with Grand Co. Being 27% LDS? That will destroy the myths many post.


MSR[/QUOTE]

I am not trying to be argumentative here, but what myth's will that destroy?

I don't think people need to worry that they will be the only non-LDS, but I do think many people have many legitimate issues they find living in Utah as a non-LDS.


Just one example. If I were to say that it is obvious after living here for 7 years that the LDS church has a heavy influence in Utah politics? What does knowing 27% of Grand county reporting LDS affiliation do to dispell that? It is a fact. Some people considering moving here, may want to know about it and may find that a difficult cultural adaptation.


Whenever considering a move, people want and should consider all angles. I think it is unfair to call comments about having a hard time fitting in, or report getting the cold shoulder from LDS neighbors a "myth"

SO, yes, there may be percentage wise, and active participation rates that are lower than what people may assume, but that does not mean that people have not had legitimate concerns and negative experiences.