How wealthy is the LDS Church?

Unlike most churches, the LDS Church does not give out a financial statement, even to its own members. However, reporters have collected as much information as possible on the church's assets. In the book Mormon America: The Power and the Promise we read: What makes the LDS Church distinctive is not just the amount of money coursing through its congregations each week—though that is also singular for the size of the denomination—but the church's heavy investments in corporate enterprises. The research for this book produced an estimate that its investments in stocks, bonds, and church-controlled businesses were worth $6 billion as of 1997, and that church-owned agricultural and commercial real estate then had a value of an additional $5 billion. Asked for guidance, one insider told us that those figures "do not appear unreasonable." The worth of other categories of assets: U.S. meetinghouses and temples, $12 billion; foreign meetinghouses and temples, $6 billion; schools and ...  more

Unlike most churches, the LDS Church does not give out a financial statement, even to its own members. However, reporters have collected as much information as possible on the church's assets. In the book Mormon America: The Power and the Promise we read: What makes the LDS Church distinctive is not just the amount of money coursing through its congregations each week--though that is also singular for the size of the denomination—but the church's heavy investments in corporate enterprises. The research for this book produced an estimate that its investments in stocks, bonds, and church-controlled businesses were worth $6 billion as of 1997, and that church-owned agricultural and commercial real estate then had a value of an additional $5 billion. Asked for guidance, on insider told us that those figures "do not appear unreasonable." The worth of other categories of assets: U.S. meetinghouses and temple, $12 billion; foreign meetinghouses and temples, $6 billion; schools and ...  more