How Many Jehovah’s Witnesses Are There?

Jehovah’s Witnesses reported a peak of 9,205,326 publishers worldwide in the 2025 service year, and Memorial attendance of 20,635,015. The service year ran from September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025. A publisher, on their own footnote, is a person who preaches. The figure is not a census of everyone who uses the name, and it is not a count of weekly attendance. In the United States, Pew’s 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study says fewer than 1% of respondents identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses. The same kind of page for another community is How Many Mormons Are There Worldwide?.

Key Points

• The 2025 Grand Totals (1) list peak publishers 9,205,326 and average publishers preaching each month 9,047,083.
• Worldwide Memorial attendance in that report is 20,635,015. Memorial partakers worldwide are 24,576.
• The same page says the 2025 service year ran from September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025, and that the increase over 2024 was 2.5 percent. Baptisms were 304,643.
• Footnote a says a publisher is one who actively publishes, or preaches, the good news of God’s Kingdom.
• The United States row (2) lists 2025 peak publishers 1,256,919 and Memorial attendance 2,377,763.
• Pew’s identity chapter (3) says fewer than 1% of respondents in the new survey identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses. This page does not turn that share into a head count.

What the 2025 Service Year Reports

The grand-totals page is their worldwide report for that service year. Beside the publisher peak it lists 84 branches, 241 lands, and 119,652 congregations. Average pioneer publishers each month were 1,743,567. Average auxiliary pioneer publishers each month were 864,870. Average Bible studies each month were 7,603,182.

The page states the calendar in one sentence:

The 2025 service year ran from September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025.

Footnote a defines the word the large number depends on: “A publisher refers to one who actively publishes, or preaches, the good news of God’s Kingdom.” The footnote points to Matthew 24:14Matthew 24:14 · King James VersionAnd this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.Matthew 24:14 · King James VersionOpen source (4). A person who attends, or who was baptized and has stopped preaching, is not automatically inside the 9,205,326. Memorial attendance, 20,635,015, is more than twice the publisher peak. That gap is on the same page. It is the difference between a preaching roll and the crowd at the Memorial.

Partakers are a third number: 24,576 worldwide. On their teaching, the partakers are the anointed who take the bread and the wine. The rest of the congregation passes the emblems and does not partake. Who May Take the Lord’s Supper? quotes that Memorial page. Who Are the 144,000? is the heaven-and-earth hope they attach to the smaller figure. 24,576 is not 144,000, and the report does not say the remainder have yet to appear. It prints the count of those who partook that year.

The United States Row

The country report uses the same service year. For the United States of America the columns read: population 342,270,000; 2025 peak publishers 1,256,919; ratio, one publisher to 274; 2025 average publishers 1,249,518; increase over 2024 of 1 percent; baptized 23,848; average pioneer publishers 241,894; congregations 11,803; average Bible studies 448,305; Memorial attendance 2,377,763.

Those are organization figures for one country. They are not Pew’s percentage. Peak publishers in the United States are about 1.26 million. Memorial attendance there is about 2.38 million. Both sit on the preaching report. Neither is an answer to “what share of U.S. adults call themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses?”

What Pew Reports

Pew asks adults in one country which religion they name. The Religious Landscape Study chapter on identity, dated February 26, 2025, says:

Fewer than 1% of respondents in the new survey identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The new survey is the study fielded from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024. The same report’s page on the decline of Christianity, which the Latter-day Saint count also cites, gives the sample as 36,908 U.S. adults. “Fewer than 1%” is Pew’s wording. This article does not multiply that phrase by the U.S. adult population. A share under 1 percent and a publisher peak of 1,256,919 can both be true, because one counts identification in a sample and the other counts people who preached in the service year.

The two worldwide figures answer two questions of their own. 9,205,326 is the peak of publishers. 20,635,015 is Memorial attendance. How Many Mormons Are There Worldwide? makes the same split for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: a First Presidency roll as of December 31, 2025, and Pew’s 2 percent of U.S. respondents.

What the Numbers Do Not Say

The report does not say how many publishers attended a meeting in a given week. It does not rank beliefs, and it does not print a wealth figure. What they confess about God and about Jesus is What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe?. They teach that Jehovah alone is Almighty God and that Jesus is a created Son. The Nicene confession is that the one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus is God. The publisher total does not decide that question.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Jehovah’s Witnesses Are in the United States?

Their 2025 country report lists 1,256,919 peak publishers and 2,377,763 at the Memorial. Pew says fewer than 1% of respondents in the new Religious Landscape Study identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses. The first pair is the organization’s service-year report. The second is a survey of identity.

Why Is Memorial Attendance Larger Than the Publisher Count?

Publishers are people who preach, by the footnote on the grand totals. Memorial attendance counts those present for that annual observance. In 2025 the worldwide Memorial figure was 20,635,015 and the publisher peak was 9,205,326.

Who Are the 24,576 Partakers?

They are the ones who ate the bread and drank the wine at that Memorial, on the organization’s report. Their teaching reserves that act for the anointed. The explanation of who may partake is Who May Take the Lord’s Supper?.

Is This the Same Kind of Number as the Latter-day Saint Roll?

Both are the group’s own published count, and both sit beside a Pew share for the United States. The Latter-day Saint figure is membership on the records as of December 31, 2025. The Witness figure is publishers who preached during a service year that ended August 31, 2025. How Many Mormons Are There Worldwide? prints the other roll.

Keep Reading

• How Many Mormons Are There Worldwide?
• What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe?
• Who Are the 144,000?
• Who May Take the Lord’s Supper?
• What Happened in 1914 According to Jehovah’s Witnesses?