Simon Christiansen
Registered User
http://www.msana.com/msastats.asp
The new membership stats from the Masonic Service Association of North America are out, so I couldn't resist the temptation to make a graph:
Masonic membership in North America has declined 46.8% over the last 20 years, from 2,021,909 in 1997 to 1,076,626 in 2017. The rate of decline seemed to be slowly levelling off during most of the 2000's, but around 2012 it settles into a linear trend.
If the current trend continues, North American freemasonry will cease to exist in 2040.
Sorry not to have better news. I was planning to fit the points to a curve, and predict when freemasonry would start growing again, but the data doesn't really support it.
Some individual Grand Lodges do seem to have stabilised, so the current trend probably won't continue forever, but it seems like it will be a while before things improve. The numbers also do not include Prince Hall lodges.
The new membership stats from the Masonic Service Association of North America are out, so I couldn't resist the temptation to make a graph:
Masonic membership in North America has declined 46.8% over the last 20 years, from 2,021,909 in 1997 to 1,076,626 in 2017. The rate of decline seemed to be slowly levelling off during most of the 2000's, but around 2012 it settles into a linear trend.
If the current trend continues, North American freemasonry will cease to exist in 2040.
Sorry not to have better news. I was planning to fit the points to a curve, and predict when freemasonry would start growing again, but the data doesn't really support it.
Some individual Grand Lodges do seem to have stabilised, so the current trend probably won't continue forever, but it seems like it will be a while before things improve. The numbers also do not include Prince Hall lodges.