World Mennonite Membership Distribution

The now widely distributed Mennonite Church began in central Europe and Holland in the 16th century. By the early 18th century the Mennonite Church was becoming truly worldwide with the arrival of Mennonite settlers in North America. In 1700 the distribution of baptized members was probably as follows: Holland 80,000, Switzerland 500, Palatinate 500, Northwest Germany with Holstein 1,000, West Prussia and associated areas 7,500, Hungary and Slovakia 500, making a total of 90,000 in Europe, plus a small handful of 25 in the newly established Germantown settlement in Pennsylvania.

By 1850 world membership had declined 25% due exclusively to the formidable decline in Holland. The distribution of baptized members can be calculated roughly as follows: Holland 25,000, Switzerland 500, France 500, South Germany 1,000, Northwest Germany 1,500, West Prussia etc. 7,500, South Russia 10,000, Eastern United States 20,000, Ontario 1,500; total 67,500.

Fifty years later, by 1900, the total Mennonite Membership more than doubled to 150,000 with the strong expansion in Russia to 40,000, the United States to 50,000, and Canada to 25,000, though the rest of Europe remained largely static. By this time the North American continent had become the home of half of the Mennonite population.

In 1925 Christian Hege provided the numbers of baptized members and their children for the first Mennonite World Conference, and in 1943, the Warte Jahrbuch published similar numbers¹:

Country	1925	1943
Netherlands	68,000	70,000
Germany and Danzig	19,000	15,000
Poland	2,300	2,000
Russia	111,500	80,000
Switzerland	1,500	2,000
France	3,000	4,000
Austria		1,000
United States	250,000	175,000
Canada	50,000	111,000
Mexico	3,000	10,000
Paraguay		6,000
Brazil		2,000
Mission Fields	8,000	1,000
Total	516,300	479,000

¹Cornelius Krahn has noted that the 1925 estimate for the United States seems rather high. He also notes that the 1943 number for Canada is based on the 1941 Canadian census figure of 111,376 Mennonites.

By 1958 Mennonite migration had expanded into the South and Central American countries of Mexico, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Honduras (total 25,000 members). By missionary outreach it expanded into three continents: Asia, including Java (Indonesia) in 1851, India in 1899, China in 1905, and Japan (Taiwan and Vietnam later) in 1949; Africa beginning with Belgian Congo in 1910 (Dem. Rep. Congo), and Tanganyika (Tanzania) in 1934; and South America with missionaries to Argentina in 1917, and to Colombia in 1945. In 1958 the total membership in these younger churches was 65,000, distributed by continents as follows: Africa 28,000, Asia 36,000, and South America 1,000. Meanwhile the Mennonite Church had been wiped out in West Prussia in 1945, and decimated in Russia 1917-1930 and 1940-1955, but had grown substantially again in Holland, and very substantially in North America by emigration from Russia (1922-1930, 1947-1950), in addition to the natural growth. The total world membership had again more than doubled in the base countries, in 1958 reaching 325,000, and together with the young churches in Asia and Africa had approached 400,000, of which total half was in the United States-Canada block.

The following world membership distribution between 1948 and 2015 by continents and countries represents the best available information concerning Mennonite, Brethren in Christ, and Church of the Brethren churches. Some numbers are estimates.

Year	1948	1958	1978	1984	1990	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009	2012	2015
World Mennonite Membership	2,621,872	390,587	613,350	728,746	856,407	1,060,143	1,206,995	1,297,721	1,478,275	1,614,726	1,774,720	2,115,195
Africa		27,809	85,871	107,267	176,462	322,708	405,979	451,959	529,438	592,106	679,053	736,801
Angola				192	1,250	2,600	17,698	11,176	10,961	10,920	18,854	33,606
Benin												56
Botswana									61	97	177	211
Burkina Faso				13	57	80	180	230	500	315	420	585
Burundi												894
Congo, Dem. Rep. of		26,000	59,548	66,408	112,906	175,837	183,040	194,119	216,268	220,444	235,202	235,852
Congo, Rep. of									16	23	598	622
Eritrea										400	400	400
Ethiopia		150	5,000	7,200	10,000	57,011	73,219	98,025	130,731	172,306	224,407	255,493
Ghana		27	607	854	1,200	3,022	3,537	4,101	4,820	5,014	5,109	5,213
Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)							1,125	1,300	1,300	1,100	1,100	1,100
Kenya			1,200	2,700	4,900	11,646	27,668	31,556	28,392	33,561	34,566	37,172
Malawi					420	229	1,540	3,500	6,763	4,186	4,185	5,744
Mozambique								718	2,035	5,835	7,514	7,843
Namibia								180	630	630	300	300
Nigeria			3,333	5,000	6,873	7,268	9,454	11,373	20,821	19,167	19,173	19,603
Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau									39	45	55	110
Somalia			100	100
South Africa					107	283	383	950	1,258	1,791	1,675	2,033
Tanzania		1,632	10,045	13,616	20,078	32,100	50,000	50,000	50,560	64,534	64,534	65,456
Togo							76	144	204	204	204	72
Uganda										109	188	380
Zambia			2,455	6,000	6,632	12,026	13,350	15,374	20,626	14,721	17,946	18,772
Zimbabwe			3,583	5,184	12,039	20,606	24,709	29,213	33,453	36,704	42,446	45,284
	1948	1958	1978	1984	1990	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009	2012	2015
Asia, Pacific and Australia	2,112	36,013	74,257	113,566	147,543	157,075	184,049	208,155	241,420	265,447	315,645	431,313
Australia			500	12	33	45	48	50	57	285	320	334
Bangladesh												14
Cambodia												200
China / Hong Kong		40,003		35	59	90	90	90	141	193	224	217
China / Macau											21	30
India		28,086	35,040	44,048	76,670	87,466	90,006	127,348	146,095	156,922	149,849	256,611
Indonesia	2,112	3,343	34,700	62,911	65,660	62,823	87,802	71,302	72,624	88,458	108,528	111,372
Japan		494	1,955	2,710	2,962	3,450	2,874	3,292	2,898	2,967	2,985	2,802
Kazakhstan									300	300	300	300
Kyrgyzstan									200	200	200	200
Myanmar										1,012	1,612	1,993
Nepal								750	594	789	912	1,029
Philippines			1,005	2,500	666	1,576	2,060	2,437	3,735	3,799	1,036	1,381
Singapore						16	20	48	80	80	60	78
South Korea								60	45	45	60	102
Taiwan		90	907	1,200	1,493	1,494	1,028	1,678	1,658	1,717	1,879	1,782
Thailand									111	658		42,368
Vietnam			150	150		115	121	1,100	12,882	8,022	12,700	10,500
	1948	1958	1978	1984	1990	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009	2012	2015
Europe	71,079	95,854	96,011	92,693	68,536	61,886	60,921	53,272	52,222	64,740	64,575	64,610
Albania												30
Austria		12	182	1,050	300	360	385	300	416	424	368	369
Belgium		24	100	85	40	39	15	35	48	35	35	35
France	2,200	2,700	2,300	2,000	2,000	2,000	2,046	2,050	2,100	2,100	2,100	2,078
Germany	12,900	12,078	10,068	11,369	18,516	39,610	39,779	31,677	32,776	46,067	46,757	47,202
German Refugees in Denmark	700
Great Britain				30	27	88	103	112	232	291	289	326
Ireland				10	10	10	15	15	22	25	25	25
Italy		90	46	66	129	189	228	258	258	250	250	200
Lithuania										200	200	203
Luxembourg	42	50	100	105	100	100	110	110	110
Moldova										10	10
Netherlands	44,500	39,000	25,589	20,200	18,000	13,500	12,203	11,000	10,200	9,025	8,030	7,680
Poland	215										10
Portugal						20	35	55	100	150	150	170
Romania									53	74	63	67
Russia (CIS)		40,000	55,000	55,000	26,200	3,350	3,350	5,000	3,000	3,000	3,000	3,000
Russian Refugees in Europe	8,822
Spain				28	214	120	152	160	153	308	379	376
Switzerland	1,700	1,900	2,626	2,750	3,000	2,500	2,500	2,500	2,500	2,500	2,500	2,350
Ukraine									254	281	409	499
	1948	1958	1978	1984	1990	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009	2012	2015
Latin America and the Caribbean	8,360	18,479	44,211	75,229	83,366	102,496	112,128	133,155	155,531	168,464	186,339	199,912
Antigua & Barbados4					725	725	725
Argentina		738	1,230	1,516	2,100	3,070	3,632	4,448	4,448	5,522	4,678	4,974
Bahamas									40	34	27	25
Belize			1,522	1,660	1,592	3,131	3,318	3,575	4,001	4,129	4,817	5,405
Bolivia		12	8,000	6,203	6,763	6,714	13,175	13,275	15,417	18,848	24,988	26,661
Brazil	604	1,632	3,462	4,785	6,209	6,690	7,636	8,262	9,856	11,058	12,873	14,748
Chile				390							1,200	1,452
Colombia		300	1,325	2,633	1,800	2,515	3,110	2,910	2,965	3,031	2,825	3,644
Costa Rica			303	850	1,218	2,025	2,094	2,719	2,831	1,784	1,978	3,869
Cuba		13			45	70	350	2,070	3,279	3,373	6,361	8,664
Dominican Republic			975	1,800	2,600	2,902	3,106	4,626	4,587	5,682	6,164	5,780
Ecuador				15	140	325	700	810	950	1,050	1,270	1,340
El Salvador				75	257	462	438	535	588	620	713	909
Grenada										46	45	8
Guatemala			320	1,789	4,295	5,972	6,250	6,673	6,966	14,301	14,869	9,496
Guyana						300	300
Haiti				900	914	924	1,606	1,265	3,827	3,382	4,617	5,566
Honduras		50	750	2,850	8,020	10,245	10,546	20,716	21,771	17,789	18,008	21,175
Jamaica		64	300	385	422	557	660	731	638	686	674	733
Mexico	5,353	7,348	13,800	31,161	19,626	20,689	16,417	19,688	25,958	29,277	32,036	33,881
Nicaragua			290	1,732	3,917	6,600	7,150	9,275	13,421	11,342	10,401	11,501
Panama			700	400	700	700	1,000	750	750	537	750	820
Paraguay	2,403	6,189	9,700	14,076	19,898	25,009	26,948	27,693	29,461	32,217	33,251	34,579
Peru					150	444	550	540	937	986	907	1,524
Puerto Rico		365	765	909	868	752	639	540	546	520	604	798
Trinidad and Tobago				44	110	160	155	130	138	270	280	300
Uruguay		1,768	769	971	877	924	1,004	1,220	1,431	1,442	1,457	1,464
Venezuela				85	120	591	619	704	725	538	546	596
	1948	1958	1978	1984	1990	1997	2000	2003	2006	2009	2012	2015
North America	160,636	212,432	313,000	339,991	380,500	415,978	443,918	451,180	499,664	523,969	529,108	682,559
Canada	46,972	52,987	88,500	101,197	114,400	128,633	124,150	127,851	131,384	136,866	137,208	143,720
United States	113,664	159,445	224,500	238,794	266,100	287,345	319,768	323,329	368,280	387,103	391,900	538,839

²The numbers for 1948 do not include any members in Africa, where Mennonite missions work existed in several countries including Congo and Tanzania. The numbers also do not include any members in China, India, and Russia.

³The number for China and Hong Kong in 1958 is an estimate, and is probably an accurate estimate for 1948.

⁴Between 1990 and 2000 the number for Antigua and Barbados includes Barbados, Barbuda, Dominica, French St. Martin, Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent, and the US Virgin Islands.

Bibliography

Krahn, Cornelius. "Mennonites - Numerically Speaking." In Mennonite World Conference 1948: Souvenir. N. p.: n. p., [1948?]: 22-24.

Lichdi, Diether Götz and Loretta Kreider, eds. Mennonite World Handbook: Mennonites in Global Witness. Carol Stream, IL: Mennonite World Conference, 1990: 326-327.

Mennonite World Conference. "World Directory." 2010. Web. 2 April 2010. http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=16.

Mennonite and Brethren in Christ World Directory 1998. Strasbourg: Mennonite World Conference, 1998.

Mennonite Yearbook and Directory (1959).

World Directory: Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Related Churches 2012 = Directorio mundial: Iglesias Menonitas, de los Hermanos en Cristo y afines 2012 = Répertoire mondial: Églises Mennonites, Frères en Christ et Apparentées. N.p.: Mennonite World Conference, 2012.

Additional Information

For the most recent statistics see theMennonite World Conference site.

Author(s)	Harold S. Bender
	Sam Steiner
	Richard D. Thiessen
Date Published	January 2013

Cite This Article

MLA style

Bender, Harold S., Sam Steiner and Richard D. Thiessen. "World Mennonite Membership Distribution." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. January 2013. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=World_Mennonite_Membership_Distribution&oldid=133827.

APA style

Bender, Harold S., Sam Steiner and Richard D. Thiessen. (January 2013). World Mennonite Membership Distribution. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=World_Mennonite_Membership_Distribution&oldid=133827.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 980-981. All rights reserved.

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