Record Number of New Stakes in 1977

Seven nations in the world gained their first stake of the Church in 1977, and for the first time stakes were organized in all fifty states in the U.S.

The fact that 87 new stakes were formed last year means more than growth in numbers of Saints in the Church—it means that all over the world, the Saints are getting stronger; leaders are rising up as they are needed; and members everywhere are learning correct principles and governing themselves.

As the Providence Rhode Island Stake and the Fargo North Dakota Stake were organized, stakes of the Church had headquarters in every state in the United States, certainly a milestone in Church history. Fourteen new stakes in Utah, nine in California, three in Idaho, and two each in Hawaii, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, along with one new stake in each of eleven other states, brought the total of new stakes in the United States to 47.

And as Belgium, Costa Rica, Colombia, Finland, Honduras, Norway, and Venezuela each received their first stake, the total of nations in the world that have stakes increased to 35 (counting the four parts of the United Kingdom as one nation). Uruguay jumped from two stakes at the beginning of 1977 to six stakes by the end. In Chile, the Concepcion Chile Stake was organized early in 1977—and by the end of the year had already been divided to form the Talcahuano Chile Stake.

Scandinavia began 1977 with only two stakes, in Stockholm and Copenhagen. By the end of the year, new stakes in Oslo, Norway; Helsinki, Finland; and Goteborg, Sweden, brought the total to five, with at least one stake in each of the Scandinavian nations.

The forty-one new stakes outside the U.S. included nine new stakes in Mexico, which with a total of 45 stakes ranks second only to the U.S. And there are many places in the world where the Church has many more stakes per population than in some parts of the United States. In the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for instance, seven stakes serve a metropolitan area only slightly smaller than New York City’s—where there are only four stakes.

The number of stakes increased by 10.9 percent in 1977, compared with an increase of 8.3 percent in 1976 and 9.2 percent in 1975. The increase in numbers of stakes means great increase in the strength of the Saints and the Church organization around the world.