Utah's Mormon population percentage shrinks

The Mormon population of Utah continues to get smaller.An Associated Press analysis of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership records used by state planning officials to develop population estimates shows that Mormons now make up 60.4 percent of the state's population. That's down from 60.7 percent last year.The percentage has declined every year for nearly two decades and if the trend continues Mormons will make up less than half of Utah's population by 2030."The LDS population will still increase, but as a share of the total, that should continue to decline over time," said University of Utah demographer Pam Perlich. "What would cause that to reverse would be an economic collapse and the same people who moved here for jobs leave for jobs. ... But there's a slim-to-none chance that would ever happen."In Salt Lake County, the state's most populous county and home to church headquarters, Mormons are barely holding onto their majority, making up 50.6 percent of the population.In recent years, Utah has experienced a demographic shift as its economy thrived and increasing numbers of workers flocked to the state from other parts of the country and world."We're just going to bring a much more diverse population here," Perlich said. "People are not moving here for family reunions or culture alone. They're coming here for work."