Missionaries by the Numbers: From 16 in 1830 to a Record 90,000+

In June 1830, two months after the Church was organized, Joseph Smith's younger brother Samuel set out from Manchester, New York, with a knapsack of books. A copy of the Book of Mormon he left behind reached Brigham Young's family. Sixteen missionaries were set apart that first year. By June 2007, a million had followed.

Missionaries by the Numbers tells that story in counts: who went, when, how many and what changed.

Years that stand out

• 1844: 586 called, the year Joseph Smith died, a level not matched again until 1895.
• 1858: no one was called, during the Utah War. It's the only such year.
• 1899: 1,059 called, the first year over 1,000.
• 1970: more missionaries were set apart in that one year (7,526) than in the Church's first 60 years combined (7,495).

Who went

The typical missionary changed completely in about 30 years. In the 1870s the average missionary was over 40 and usually married. By the 1900s most were single and in their early 20s. Before 1898, about 120 women went with their husbands while nearly 7,500 men served. In 1898 the First Presidency approved formal calls for women to preach, and 2,796 sister missionaries are documented from 1898 to 1930.

The 2012 age change

On October 6, 2012, President Thomas S. Monson lowered the minimum age to 18 for young men and 19 for young women. The number serving jumped 41% in one year, from 58,990 at the end of 2012 to 83,035 at the end of 2013. In July 2013, 58 new missions opened, taking the count from 347 to 405, the largest single expansion in Church history.

Eighteen, and the sisters came

On November 21, 2025, the First Presidency lowered the minimum age for young women from 19 to 18, the same as young men. Most waited to finish high school. When they did, in spring and summer 2026, the mission force passed its all-time high: 88,500 full-time missionaries in July 2026, then more than 90,000 by September. Young women serving went from about 25,000 to more than 30,000, the largest group of sister missionaries in Church history and about one in three of all full-time missionaries. On July 1, 2026, 55 new missions opened, for 506 in all.

Two kinds of count

Before 1977, most records count missionaries called or set apart in a year. From 1977, the Church reports how many were serving on December 31. A two-year missionary shows up in two year-end counts but only one year of calls, so the page draws them as separate charts instead of one line. The record 90,000+ figure also counts young service missionaries and senior missionaries, which is broader than the year-end teaching count. The Church has not released a separate count of elders.

Find your mission

Every mission has its own page on the Mission Map, with where it is, its languages, temples, presidents and history. Looking for an ancestor who served? The page links to the Church History Library's missionary database, which covers at least 47,000 missionaries from 1830 to 1945.

Questions

Why don't the early numbers and the modern numbers connect?

They measure different things: missionaries called in a year versus missionaries serving at year's end. Joining them would make the line look smoother than the history was.

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: what all those missions added up to
• The Restoration by the Numbers: the books Samuel Smith carried
• Temples by the Numbers: every house of the Lord, counted

See all the projects on the By the Numbers page.

Start in 1830 →