Gary C. Lobb

C. GARY LOBB is Professor of Geography and Latin American studies at California State University. Born in Salt Lake City, he earned a B.A. from the University of Utah, a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Northridge, and he lives in Chatsworth, California, with his wife Ann Vest.

Mormon Membership Trends in Europe Among People of Color: Present and Future Assessment

Articles/Essays – Volume 33, No. 4

I hope I’m not extending the metaphor too far, but it seems apparent the field is less white and more colorful as the church moves into the twenty first century. Most church members are aware (although some along the Wasatch Front have a hard time visualizing it) that rapid growth rates in Latin America, Africa, and the Philippines are essentially among people of color. However, it is my contention that future growth of the church even in the bastions of Nordic, Teutonic, British, and Celtic Europe—a region which supplied membership and leadership during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—will increasingly be among people of color not native to the European continent.