1979 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, “1978 Service Year Report (narrative)”, 1979, pp. 3-32, p. 23 (publisher figures); p. 31 (disfellowshipping figure)

Primary JW publication Verified

1979 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, “1978 Service Year Report (narrative)”

1979 · pp.3-32 · p. 23 (publisher figures); p. 31 (disfellowshipping figure) · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“there were 2,086,698, on the average, who shared in making known the “good news” compared with 2,117,194 the year before. The peak number of publishers came to 2,182,341, which is also below that of last year. [p. 23] … 29,893 were disfellowshiped last year. [p. 31]”

1978 service year: second consecutive decline; 95,052 baptised; the yearbook acknowledges 'an overall 1.4-percent decrease in the number of Kingdom publishers'.

Official source (opens in new tab)

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened the WOL document; page markers confirm pp. 23 and 31.

Corroborated by. src-yb-1978-0000-1977-service-year-report

Notes. Peak publishers: 1975 2,179,256 → 1976 2,248,390 → 1977 2,223,538 → 1978 2,182,341.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-yb-1979-0000-1978-service-year-report