Comparing the overall donations to salaries, I get the following:
2009 – 111.74% (Church run school being funded, school is shut down)
2010 – 52.81%
2011 – 50.71%
2012 – 41.06%
The slowly declining ratio is NOT due to them being more conservative, but rather that the members are giving more tithing over time.
In 2011, there were 104,115 members[2], which means that donations were roughly only $303.70 per member per year. That’s not exactly 10%… or they don’t make much money in New Zealand.
But let’s go based on wards to calculate active members. 207 wards x 150 individuals per ward would mean the average donation is $1,018.32 per member–meaning that they are either poor as dirt, or very few people are paying tithing.
Anyway, the actual tax reports are linked above. Have fun with some of your own calculations.
Interesting evidence. I wish they had to publish their information in the US. It’s ridiculous that fake charities like the LDS church can get away with so little transparency.
I was surprised by how much was spent on depreciation costs and “general administrative” stuff. Much less than I thought is spent on local units and charities.
The median income for New Zealand was $20,679 in 2007. It was ranked #17 in the world. So, there’s that. They have had pretty good GDP growth over the last few years, so it’s probably even higher than that.
Also, I doubt that new tithing is coming from renewed devotion by New Zealanders. They’ve only had one new stake in the last few years. The rebound in tithing is probably due to rising incomes with the recovery from the recession that hit in 2008.