Missionary force tops 90,000 as 18-year-old sisters flood in
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now has more than 90,000 full-time missionaries serving worldwide, the Church announced Sept. 18. It is an all-time high, and it keeps climbing.
The milestone follows a July announcement of 88,500 missionaries, itself a record at the time. The driver is young women. More than 30,000 sisters are now serving, the largest cohort of young women in Church history. That surge follows the First Presidency's November 2025 announcement that young women who choose to serve a full-time mission may begin at age 18. On July 1 the Church also opened 55 new missions, bringing the worldwide total above 500.
President Dallin H. Oaks called the growth a historic moment at the June Seminar for New Mission Leaders. "Missionary work is soaring to new heights," he said. "We are currently being reinforced by the first wave of 18-year-old sisters beginning their service."
Elder Dale G. Renlund, writing in May, credited several factors: bishoprics focusing more on the rising generation, wider availability of For the Strength of Youth conferences, earlier family scripture study through the Come, Follow Me curriculum, and young men and women learning to work in counsel with each other. Seminary and institute enrollment is also at its highest in Church history, according to the Church.
What it means: the single biggest lever was giving young women an earlier start. The First Presidency changed a policy, and the rising generation responded in record numbers. Policy change, measurable result. That tells you more about what young Latter-day Saints want than a shelf of commentary about the supposed decline of faith among the young.
What to watch next: whether the surge holds once the first wave of 18-year-old sisters ages through the system, and whether the mission count keeps rising to match a force that shows no sign of slowing down.