Utah LDS population hits lowest level ever

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Residents of Utah who belong to the LDS Church make up 60.7 percent of the state's population, the lowest share ever.

The percentage has declined every year for nearly two decades, according to membership numbers supplied by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The numbers, along with statistics from school districts, the Internal Revenue Service and other sources, helped state officials recently when they estimated Utah's population at 2.69 million, as of July.

If the trend holds, Mormons will make up less than half of Utah's population by 2030.

The state gained more than 84,000 residents between the summers of 2006 and 2007, about half of them transplants.

Utah "will always be a dominant center for that religion. That is not going to change," said Pam Perlich, a demographer at the University of Utah. "But a slow, steady decline of the Mormon share will continue as long as the state grows."

The Mormon church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, declined to comment on the trend.