How many Utahns identify as Latter-day Saints? Fewer than you think
New study shows most adults in the state don’t identify as members of the predominant faith.
Photo by Chris Samuels and graphic by Christopher Cherrington, The Salt Lake Tribune
Editor’s note: This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.
Ask Utahns and they will tell you the signs have been there for years. Longer waits for Sunday brunch. A proliferation of coffee shops and brew pubs. Bustling tattoo parlors boasting names like “Painted Temple.”
Sure enough, a new study all but confirms what many have sensed all along: Most Utahns do not identify as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Indeed, the “provisional” findings, based on a survey of nearly 2,000 Utah adults, show that 42% consider themselves members of the state’s predominant faith — a whopping 22 percentage points lower than the 64.3% the church reports on its membership rolls.
The difference comes down not to data, necessarily, but definitions.
The study’s authors were not interested in how many people are listed in the church’s books, a number that includes those who haven’t been to church since Ronald Reagan was president and the Utah Jazz were championship contenders. Instead, they wanted to know how many Utahns, if asked, would say they are Latter-day Saints.
Read the full story at sltrib.com.