Humanitarian and Welfare by the Numbers: How the Church Cared for Those in Need in 2025

A storehouse shelf in Salt Lake City, a wheelchair in Ghana, a counselor on a call in Argentina. Every year the Church reports what it spent caring for those in need, and how. Humanitarian and Welfare by the Numbers puts five of those reports side by side.

Five years of giving

The Church began publishing an annual summary of its welfare and humanitarian spending in 2022, covering 2021. In four years the total grew by about three-quarters, while the number of projects stayed near 4,000.

• +74%: annual spending grew from $906 million in 2021 to $1.58 billion in 2025.
• $4.3 million: spent on average every day of 2025.
• 196: countries and territories served in 2025, up from 188 in 2021.
• 33.3 million: hours volunteered over the five years, about 3,800 years of round-the-clock work.

What the projects were for

Health care led in 2025 with 703 projects, followed closely by education, food and emergency relief. There were 569 emergency relief projects, for disasters such as typhoons in the Philippines, and 227 projects for clean water, hygiene and sanitation.

Women and children first

In 2025 the Relief Society General Presidency brought eight global humanitarian organizations together into four consortia focused on mothers and children. Through those consortia, 21.2 million children and mothers received vitamins.

“The Lord does not expect us to do more than we can do, but He does expect us to do what we can do, when we can do it.” Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, Presiding Bishop, in the 2025 report

The welfare system you don't hear about

Much of the work never makes the news: food from bishops' storehouses, job training at Deseret Industries, counseling, loans for school and addiction recovery meetings every week. In 2025, bishops' storehouses donated 30.9 million meals of food to food banks and aid groups. The page shows the full set of 2025 welfare totals.

The people who do it

Most of this is done by volunteers: Relief Society sisters, priesthood quorums, youth and missionaries assigned to welfare and self-reliance work. JustServe, which began in 2012, passed a million registered users by 2025, with 114,639 new users and 38,597 new projects that year.

Where it started

The welfare plan began in April 1936, when about 88,000 Church members were on public relief. Humanitarian aid to people of every faith began in earnest after a famine in Ethiopia in 1985.

Questions

What does the spending total include?

Humanitarian projects, donated goods, fast-offering assistance, bishops' orders and welfare services, as reported in the Church's annual Caring for Those in Need reports. Dollar totals are rounded the way the Church reports them.

Is the “every minute” counter real-time?

No. It spreads 2025's totals evenly across the year. Real spending rises and falls with disasters and seasons.

Is this an official Church resource?

No. By the Numbers is an independent Weak Things project. The figures come from official Church reports and other published sources, listed on the page.

Keep exploring

• Church Growth by the Numbers: members in more than 150 countries and territories
• Relief Society & Women by the Numbers: the women of the Church, counted
• Missionaries by the Numbers: including service missionaries

See all the projects on the By the Numbers page.

See five years of giving →