*Membership was published as an estimate or rounded number. Source: Windall J. Ashton; Jim M. Wall, Deseret News, various years, Church Almanac Country Information: Sweden[1]
The Book of Mormon was translated into Swedish in 1878.[6] As with many other Scandinavian converts, Swedish LDS were encouraged to emigrate to the US and build up "Zion" there; these included the ancestors of a previous church president, Thomas S. Monson, whose grandfather, Nels Monson (born Torhamn), emigrated at the age of 16. This depleted local numbers for a number of decades, until in the late twentieth century, this policy was discontinued, and a temple built within the country itself.
As of 2021, the LDS Church counted its number of members in Sweden to be just above 9,528, divided into 5 regional units with a total of 40 congregations.[7][verification needed] This was an increase in membership from 2014, which was 9,463.[8] The Church also maintains one temple in the country, the Stockholm Sweden Temple, in Västerhaninge.
The Swedish Rescue
Around 2010, a number of Swedish members of the LDS Church, including former area seventyHans Mattsson, began to doubt the veracity of the church.[9]Marlin K. Jensen, a church general authority, and historian Richard E. Turley Jr. soon after conducted a fireside, an informal church meeting, at the Västerhaninge Chapel in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 28, 2010.[10][11] The audio was surreptitiously recorded and sparked much discussion and interest in the blogosphere.[12][13][14]
Membership history of the LDS Church in SwedenService in Gubbängen in 2015
Stakes
A meetinghouse next to the Stockholm Sweden Temple
As of February 2023, the following stakes were located in Sweden:
Mission
Organized
Göteborg Sweden Stake
20 Nov 1977
Malmö Sweden Stake
1 Sep 1996
Stockholm Sweden Stake
20 Apr 1975
Stockholm Sweden South Stake
20 Aug 1995
Umeå Sweden District
1 Jan 1960
Missions
Sweden Stockholm Mission: On June 15, 1905, the Swedish Mission was organized from the Scandinavian Mission, which was renamed the Danish-Norwegian Mission.[15][16] When established, the mission covered Sweden, Finland, Russia and northern Germany, with Petter Matson as its president.[17] It has since been split among other missions, reducing the area of the mission to only Sweden.
