Stokes Sounds Off: Current Apostolic Statistics: Part Two—Updated Ages, Averages & Apostolic Nonagenarians

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Sunday, September 22, 2019

Current Apostolic Statistics: Part Two—Updated Ages, Averages & Apostolic Nonagenarians

Hello again, everyone! I am back again now with the second part of this apostolic statistical update, in which we will move on to talk specifics regarding the long-form and decimal ages of our current apostles, which will also include updated information on the average ages of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the 15 apostles as a group, and current and future nonagenarians. So let’s get right into all of that. Again, all data is current as of today (Sunday September 22). There have been five apostolic birthdays since my last such update: Elder Stevenson’s 64th on August 6 followed 3 days later by Elder Andersen’s 68th, which in turn was followed 3 days later by President Oaks’ 87th birthday. Then, earlier this month, Elder Cook observed his 79th birthday one day prior to the 95th birthday of our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.


And given the planned timing for my next update (which I will be publishing here on Sunday November 10), by that time, 3 other apostles will be observing their birthdays as follows: Elder Ulisses Soares, our youngest currently-serving apostle, will celebrate his 61st birthday on Wednesday October 2, which will be followed 6 days later (Tuesday October 8) by the 91st birthday of President M. Russell Ballard. Then, 4 days prior to my next planned update (on Wednesday November 6), Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf will be observing his 79th birthday. And one week later (three days after my next planned update), Elder Dale G. Renlund will celebrate his 67th birthday). 

Having noted that, we now move on to some exact figures about the ages and average ages of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and all 15 apostles as a group. In the Church’s leading Quorum, President Nelson is, as noted towards the end of my previous post, 95 years, 0 months, and 13 days old, with a resulting decimal age of 95.03 years. First Counselor President Oaks is now 87 years, 1 month, and 10 days old, or 87.11 years. President Eyring, as the junior member of the First Presidency, is now 86 years, 3 months, and 22 days old, which is 86.31 in decimal years.  The First Presidency thus now has a combined 268.45 years of life experience, which results in an average age for each man of 89.48 years.

President Nelson remains 5.55 years older than that average, with President Oaks closest to it (he remains 2.37 years younger than that average), which means that President Eyring, at 0.8 years younger than President Oaks, continues to be 3.17 years below it. Unless there is something of which we are not aware in relation to the health of any of these Brethren, they will continue to set new records for the oldest-serving First Presidency in Church history for the foreseeable future, and are bound to join (and even move up quite a bit on) the list of the longest-serving First Presidencies, as I mentioned towards the end of my previous post.

Next, let’s turn our attention to the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. President Ballard’s long-form age now sits at 90 years, 11 months, and 14 days, or 90.96 years. Elder Holland now has a long-form age of 78 years, 9 months, and 19 day, with a resulting 78.80 decimal years. Elder Uchtdorf (who is just 4 weeks older than his senior current apostolic seatmate) is now 78 years, 10 months, and 16 days old, which works out to 78.88 years. Elder Bednar has now reached the full age of 67 years, 3 months, and 7 days, which works out to 67.27 decimal years.

Leading off the second third of that Quorum is Elder Cook, who is also the oldest but least senior of the 3 apostles born in 1940. His long-form age is 79 years, 0 months, and 14 days old, with a resulting decimal age of 79.04 years. Elder Christofferson has now reached the age of 74 years, 7 months and 29 days, making his decimal age 74.66 years. Elder Andersen is now 68 years, 1 month, and 13 days old, and his decimal age is 68.12 years. And, as of today, Elder Rasband is 68 years, 7 months, and 15 days old, or 68.62 decimal years.

As for the final third of the Quorum, Elder Stevenson, who is 4.5 years to the day younger than Elder Rasband, has a long-form age of 64 years, 1 month, and 16 days, with a decimal age of 64.13 years. Elder Renlund, the last apostle called during the prophetic administration of President Thomas S. Monson, is now 66 years, 10 months, and 9 days old, with a resulting decimal age of 66.86 years. As for our newest apostles, Elder Gong’s long-form age is 65 years, 8 moths, and 30 days old, which works out to 65.75 decimal years. As for Elder Soares, he is now 60 years, 11 months, and 20 days old, with a resulting decimal age of 60.97 years.

Based on those numbers, the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles now have a combined 864.06 years of life experience, which results in an average of 72.01 years per member. Elders Christofferson and Rasband remain respectively above and below that average. Elder Christofferson is once again 2.65 years older than it, while Elder Rasband is now 3.39 years below it. With the information I presented earlier about the First Presidency, the 15 apostles as a group now have a combined 1,132.51 years of life experience, which is an average of 75.5 years. As noted previously, Elder Holland remains 3.3 years older than that average, while Elder Christofferson remains 0.84 years younger than that average. 

We now move on to the apostolic nonagenarians. As I mentioned in a previous post, President Nelson remains the 6th spot on that list, passing Ezra Taft Benson in early July, and he will not move up thereon again until late August of next year.  In the meantime, President Ballard remains the 14th oldest apostle in Church history. President Ballard will move up two more spots on that list before President Nelson moves up to his next spot. In the meantime, among the other apostles, President Oaks will join the nonagenarian list in 2 years, 10 months, and 21 days, while Elder Soares will do so in 29 years and 10 days, with the other apostles doing so at various intervals, which will be detailed more fully as they approach.

I hope that many of you found this information to be interesting, informative, and accurate. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

10 comments:

  1. Hello again, everyone! The following additional Church News stories have been published:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/history-revisited/2019-09-22/atomic-bomb-elder-perry-nagasaki-159673

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2019-09-22/temple-preparation-primary-priesthood-young-women-161151

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Am I right in thinking the First Presidency will have an average age of 90 around next April's conference?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. twinnumerouno, the average age of the First Presidency increases by 0.13 or 0.14 every 7 weeks. Looking ahead at my schedule for future updates, it appears that the First Presidency reaching an average age of 90 years around the time I will be doing my April 2020 update, which will coincide with General Conference weeked. Whether that average is reached right on the date that update will be posted is something I would only be able to answer more exactly closer to that time. Hope that information helps.

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  3. You must have modified a previous post, as your comments about Elder Stevenson said that his birthday is two days away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. twinnumerouno, I usually keep a copy of each apostolic update on my computer, and edit it in between each update before setting the next one to publish. So this time, the information in question that you mentioned about Elder Stevenson was one thing I forgot to update this go-round. I think the main reason that happened is that I am working on a different computer than I was last time, and because of that, there are some parts of some files for which the latest versions did not transfer over, which is apparently what happened in this case. I have fixed the error. I will go back and address your other question in a few minutes. For now, thanks for bringing this to my attention.

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  4. The following additional Church news story was published a short time ago:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-09-23/byu-utah-primary-joy-jones-161347

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello again, everyone! I have some additional Church news and temple updates to report here, which I will do either all in one comment or as two separate ones. So let's dive into all of that. First, from the Newsroom comes a duplicate report of Sister Jones' address which I mentioned in my prior comment:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/sister-joy-jones-engage-society-informed-sincere-civil-ways

    For those who would like to do so, I am also including below the web address at which the text of Sister Jones' address can be found:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/sister-joy-jones-engage-society-informed-sincere-civil-ways

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/sister-joy-jones-transcript-conversation-conviction-civility

    Next, both the Newsroom and the Church News have reported on a donation the Church has provided to aid the state of Utah in their ongoing efforts to fight the issues resulting in teen suicide. Utah Area President Elder Craig C. Christensen represented the Church in presenting that donation to Utah legislators:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-helps-fund-suicide-prevention-awareness-campaign-utah-2019

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-09-23/utah-suicide-pevention-state-capitol-161417

    Another Church News story shares how Acting President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was featured in a devotional for Latter-day Saint students at UVU on Friday, alongside UVU President Astrid Tuminez, the latter of whom was introduced to the group by Elder Craig C. Christensen:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-09-23/president-russell-ballard-utah-valley-university-161280

    And a popular soccer club in Arizona has determined that, in order to fight for a focus on family, they will be opting against scheduling any games for their organization on Sunday:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2019-09-23/arizona-soccer-club-mesa-sabbath-160842

    That said, temple updates will follow in a subsequent comment in a few minutes. In the meantime, my thanks again to you all for your continued interest and ongoing support.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello again, everyone! I am back with the temple updates I promised, which consist of new information on two temples currently undergoing renovation. Before going into specifics on those, I did want to note that I have been made aware of other temple updates aside from those two, but I need to confirm some of the information relating to the nature of those updates before passing them along here.

    So here are the two updates which I am currently in a position to be able to confirm: At the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple, the construction barrier has been removed, and a drainage system for that temple's parking lot has been installed. And at the temple named for the capital city of the United States (Washington D.C.), stairs and parking lot curbing are currently being poured.

    I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such updates. Once again, my thanks to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Puebla Temple rendering released and groundbreaking set for November 30!

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-scheduled-for-the-puebla-mexico-temple

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eric, thank you for mentioning that here. I found the information at around the same time you left your comment, and I was able to do a breaking news post on it just a few moments ago. Nice to have that information confirmed. Thanks.

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