Scientology Worldwide

The Claim

A CoS Web page has a graph of the worldwide growth of countries where Dianetics and Scientology services are available dating from 1997:

"At the current rate of expansion, Scientology churches will be found in every country in the world within 10 years."

The above sentence is identical to one from a 1992 page, except for that one having a 15 instead of a 10 year target of course. Since we are in 2007 as I type, it is time to test that assertion and update stats.

The Organisation

The CoS like other religious organisations aquired its present structure over time. The basic unit is the Org, the Scientology equivalent of a Church. As you will see from the table below, the number of Orgs has remained at around 130 in recent years.
Above Orgs are the Advanced Service Orgs (ASOs) which as their name suggests provide the high level courses in Scientology. There are five of these. Below Orgs are the Missions, which derive from the franchising system originally devised for Scientology's predecessor Dianetics. Most Missions are run by an individual 'Mission Holder' and offer only the basic starter courses.

A caveat for those unfamiliar with Scientology: this is not an offshoot of Christianity, Islam, Buddism or any other religion. Orgs should not be equated with Churches, mosques or synagogues, they are not places of worship. Scientologists attend Orgs individually for training and auditing, gatherings are only held for social or fundraising purposes.

The data

The CoS has seperate sections of its maze of Web Sites for lists of Orgs, Missions and Dianetics Foundations. There are other abandoned lists but the above are currently maintained ones. They may be inaccurate in places, but we are looking here at the claims the CoS makes about itself. Our thanks to 'Inducto' for the original concept and research.

Summary (August 2007)

• 27 countries have at least one Org up 1 from 2004
• 30 countries have missions only, up 5 from 2004
• Most countries show little change in the number of service units. As noted in our previous surveys however, a few countries are different.
  • Russia has two Orgs supporting a lot of Missions, but this growth has reversed (41 down from 73) perhaps due to competition from Rons Org.
  • Hungary and Italy also have a lot of Missions, the number seems to have stabilised.
  • Several more countries have experienced a big growth in Missions, notably Slovakia, Taiwan and Ukraine.
  • In the USA the number of Orgs is constant but the number of Missions is slowly increasing.
• The United Kingdom announced a substantial increase in Missions several years ago, none opened then but several have started up more recently.

So the CoS lists a total of 57 countries which have a CoS presence out of the 129 most recently claimed. Just to emphasise the point, this is the Church's own data we are using.

The map

Here's a nice 2007 map by Stan Em taken from Wikipedia using the same data as in the table below. Orange countries have at least one Org, yellow at least one Mission but no Orgs.

The table

Not all CoS branches are called 'Church of Scientology', there are Dianetics Centers, Hubbard Foundations, etc, but the administrative division between Missions, Orgs and ASOs is maintained everywhere. Some of these alternative names may be due to local regulations, for example in Scotland non-Christian organisations cannot call themselves 'Churches'.

Key
AO -- Advanced Service Organisation
CC -- Celebrity Center

Country	Orgs						Missions						Other
	1998	2000	2001	2002	2004	2007	1998	2000	2001	2002	2004	2007
Albania								1	1	1	1
Argentina	1	1	1	1	1	1
Australia	6	6	6	6	6	6	2	2	2	2	4	4	1 AO
Austria	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	1 CC
Belgium	1	1	1	1	1	1
Belorussia									2	2	2	2
Brazil										1	1	1
Canada	7	8	8	8	8	8	4	7	8	8	6	5
Chile							1	2	2	2	1	1
Colombia	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	2
Congo Rep.									1	1	1
Costa Rica							1	1	1	1	1	2
Croatia									1	1	1	1
Czech Republic								1	1	1	1	6
Denmark	3	2	2	2	2	3	6	5	5	5	5	3	1 AO
Dominican Republic							1	1	1	1	1	1
Ecuador							1	1	2	1	1	1
Fiji
Finland								2	2	2	2	2
France	6	6	6	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	7	1 CC
Germany	9	8	8	8	8	8	10	9	10	10	10	10	1 CC
Georgia											1	1
Ghana							1	1
Greece							1	1	1	1	1
Guatemala							1	1	1	1	2	2
Hong Kong								1	1	1	1
Hungary						1	14	24	29	28	27	23
India							2	2	3	4	5	4
Ireland							1	1	1	1	3	1
Israel	1	1	1	1	1	1		1				2
Italy	11	11	11	11	11	11	14	31	32	34	54	50	1CC
Japan	1	1	1	1	1	1	1			1	2	5
Kazakhstan							3	4	11	12	12	9
Kyrgyzstan									1	1	1	2
Latvia							1	1	1	1		1
Lithuania							1	1	1	1	1	1
Macedonia									1	1	1	2
Mexico	7	6	6	6	6	7	6	7	7	8	10	6
Moldova							1	1	1	1	1
Nepal												1
Netherlands	1	1	1	1	1	1
Nigeria							1	1	1	1	1	1
Norway	1	1	1	1	1	1
New Zealand	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Pakistan							2	1	1	1	1	1
Phillipines												1
Portugal	1	1	1	1	1	1
Puerto Rico	1
Romania							3	1	1	2	1	1
Russia	1	1	1	1	1	2	39	50	62	66	73	41
Serbia
Slovakia											3	14
Slovenia								1	1	1	1	1
South Africa	6	6	6	6	6	6	2	2	2	3	3	6
Spain	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	5	5	5	4	5
Sweden	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	1	1	1
Switzerland	5	5	5	5	5	5	3	3	3	3	5	6
Taiwan							3	3	5	6	9	15
Tanzania											1	1
Thailand									1	1	2	1
Ukraine							2	3	3	4	7	17
United Kingdom	7	8	8	8	8	9	4	2	2	2	3	7	1AO 1CC
United States	39	42	42	43	43	41	59	68	82	88	98	104	2AO 5CC
Venezuela	2	2	2	2	2	2
Zaire								1	1	1	1
Zimbabwe	2	2	2	2	2	2
TOTALS	128	128	128	128	128	131	206	261	310	329	382	383	15

Notes:
What is Scientology? 1998 Edition lists 143 Class IV Orgs, 230 Missions.
Celebrity Centres are a mixed bag. Some such as Hollywood are genuinely aimed at showbiz 'personalities', others seem to be ordinary Missions. I've listed them all seperately.
The CoS bureaucracy sometimes cuts across national boundaries, for example the Belfast Mission is listed under 'Ireland'. I have been about as inconsistent (!), arbitrarily shifting some branches elsewhere. Puerto Rico as another example hasn't closed, it's now included in the USA total.

The Freezone

Freezoners are scientology heretics operating outside a Church which hates them and does not consider them to be scientologists. They are accordingly circumspect about their activities which are consequently unverifiable, particularly as the media consider them a complication and would prefer to ignore them.
So far as I know Rons Org is the largest Freezone organisation. It is decentralised, with its 'Orgs' ranging in size from the same as a CoS Org down to study groups. As of 2007 most, around 25, are in the former Soviet Union, and there are one or two in each of half a dozen Western European countries.
Other Freezone organisations appear only to provide contact between members and have no branches as such.

---