For nearly 174 years, Salt Lake County has served as the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and home for most of its presidents and apostles. Early pioneers created it as a remote refuge from persecution.

For a third consecutive year, the raw number of church members in the county has dropped significantly — by 5,734 members, according to 2020 data provided to The Salt Lake Tribune by Utah’s predominant faith. It fell by 17,174 over the past three years, the equivalent to losing the population of Bluffdale.

That decline came as Utah’s most populous county continued to grow, adding about 36,600 residents over those same three years.

Salt Lake County is minority Latter-day Saint, a distinction it first received in 2017 — and since then the percentage continued to slide. Latter-day Saints now account for 46.89% of its population, the seventh year in row to see the percentage dip.