Languages spoken by the members of the Church of Jesus Christ
The following chart shows the top 10 languages spoken as primary languages by members worldwide as of 31 Dec 2005. The numbers of members are estimates.
Language Members Percentage of total English 6,008,000 39.7% Spanish 3,903,000 31.1% Portuguese 970,000 7.7% Tagalog 172,000 1.4% Cebuano 131,000 1.0% Japanese 118,000 0.9% Ilokano 113,000 0.9% Samoan 107,000 0.9% Tongan 80,000 0.6% Korean 79,000 0.6%
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Total 11,681,000 93.0%
(Source: The Ensign, April 2005, page 79)
A series of ‘language’ milestones reached by the Church in this dispensation
1. 1831 — The first spoken communications to non-English speaking people was to the Delaware Indians located in present-day Kansas.
2. 1841 — The first written communications to non-English speaking people was to Dutch rabbis in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
3. 1842 — The first non-English speaking church unit was in LaSalle, Illinois, a branch for Norwegian-speaking immigrants.
4. 1843 — The first non-English speaking church unit outside of the United States was a branch in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
5. 1844 — The second non-English speaking church unit outside of the United States was a branch on the island of Tubuai in French Polynesia.
6. 1851 — The first non-English translation of the Book of Mormon was in Danish.
7. 1851 — The first non-English translation of the Doctrine and Covenants was in Welsh.
8. 1852 — The first non-English translation of the Pearl of Great Price was in Welsh.
9. February 1996 — In this month we reached the milestone of having more Church members living outside of the U.S.A. than living inside the U.S.A.
10. September 2000 — In this month we reached the milestone of having more non-English speaking members of the Church than English-speaking members. .
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