2025 Governing Body Update #7

[Doug]

On 11/24/2025 at 7:18 AM, Parale said:

 

Jeffrey Winder: "We rejoiced to see an average of 9,047,083 publishers. That represents a 2.5 percent increase. What’s more, out of the 241 lands where we preach the good news, 96 reported all-time peaks in the number of publishers."

 

 

Our CO is Shannon Rainey.  In his prayers, he mentions the approximately 118,000 congregations and the 240 lands.  He mentioned the 240 lands during his visit in October.

 

Today, at the Circuit Assembly, in his prayer he mentioned 241 lands.  This caught my attention.  Do we know what land has been added to the report since October?

[Parale]

2 hours ago, Doug said:

Today, at the Circuit Assembly, in his prayer he mentioned 241 lands.  This caught my attention.  Do we know what land has been added to the report since October?

 

My educated guess would be it is the return of the same land that dropped out of the Service Year Report a couple of years ago, namely Norfolk Island?....

 

 

FWIW the other changes over the last couple of years include both Lebanon and Russia no longer reporting individually, but instead being included in the 'other lands' where the work is restricted; Swaziland being renamed Eswatini; and Macedonia being renamed North Macedonia.

[kejedo]

Some lands have been split or renamed. I found the older year reports compelling.

 

[Sepie93]

 
My educated guess would be it is the return of the same land that dropped out of the Service Year Report a couple of years ago, namely Norfolk Island?....
 

 
FWIW the other changes over the last couple of years include both Lebanon and Russia no longer reporting individually, but instead being included in the 'other lands' where the work is restricted; Swaziland being renamed Eswatini; and Macedonia being renamed North Macedonia.

And ofcourse Monaco, which had a 100% increase last year because it was new in the list.

Also Bhutan has been on the list for one or two years and then removed? I cant remember if it went to the "other countries" section.

It could also be Vietnam by the way.
For a few years now all the meetings are openly available on jw.org. So it wouldn't surprise me that the report will be published too.

[SteEis]

On 12/10/2025 at 10:08 PM, Sepie93 said:

And ofcourse Monaco, which had a 100% increase last year because it was new in the list.

Also Bhutan has been on the list for one or two years and then removed? I cant remember if it went to the "other countries" section.

It could also be Vietnam by the way.
For a few years now all the meetings are openly available on jw.org. So it wouldn't surprise me that the report will be published too.
 

Bougainville will have to be added at some point. The population voted for independence in a referendum. At the latest, Bougainville should appear in the report once the state is founded. (Bougainville was already listed as a territory in the report from 1969 to 1975).

[Parale]

57 minutes ago, SteEis said:

Bougainville will have to be added at some point.

 

I wonder about the five US permanently inhabited unincorporated territories - four are listed, but one isn't 🤔

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_States

 

 

American Samoa

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/worldwide/AS/

 

Guam

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/worldwide/GU/

 

Puerto Rico

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/worldwide/PR/

 

United States Virgin Islands

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/worldwide/VI/

 

Northern Mariana Islands

NOT LISTED, but had 55 homes of witnesses living on the Islands in 2018? 🤔🤷‍♂️

https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/micronesia/super-typhoon-yutu-20181102/

 

 

 

For Britain, I think all the permanently inhabited BTOs likely to have Witnesses living on them ARE listed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories

 

While British Crown Dependencies are NOT listed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Dependencies