About five years ago I wrote a post looking at how many children the apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have. With the recent deaths of three apostles and the calling of three more in the past week, it’s time to update my analyses.
Before I start I want to clarify that the number of children people have is not necessarily the number of children they want to have. I don’t want to downplay the heartache many feel at not being able to have (more) children due to health issues or other life circumstances. I pass no judgements on the number of children anyone has and ask that any who read this follow likewise. I’ll never forget a comment Truman Madsen made that when he was younger he and his wife would sometimes hear people ask behind their backs, “I wonder why the Madsens only have three children.” His poignant comment was, “We wonder too.” With this post I’m simply providing an analysis of things as they are.
Here are the numbers (Apostles are sorted according to seniority with number of children, current ages (as of 10/04/2015) and their ages when called as apostles):
Apostle | Children | Current Age | Age When Called |
Monson | 3 | 88 | 36 |
Nelson | 10 | 91 | 59 |
Oaks | 6 | 83 | 52 |
Ballard | 7 | 86 | 56 |
Hales | 2 | 83 | 61 |
Holland | 3 | 74 | 53 |
Eyring | 6 | 82 | 61 |
Uchtdorf | 2 | 74 | 63 |
Bednar | 3 | 63 | 52 |
Cook | 3 | 75 | 67 |
Christofferson | 5 | 70 | 63 |
Andersen | 4 | 64 | 57 |
Rasband | 5 | 64 | 64 |
Stevenson | 4 | 60 | 60 |
Renlund | 1 | 62 | 62 |
Now for something tangentially related. How old were the apostles when called? The figure below shows current age (blue) and age when called (red).
What is interesting is that there is a trend towards a difference in age when called between the two groups (p = 0.07) with the more senior group called at slightly younger ages (mean = 54) than the less senior group (mean = 61). Pres. Monson, of course, is a strong driver of this difference (with him removed, p = 0.116) because he was ordained an apostle at age 36, which is incredibly young (he’s the outlier in the box plot below).
Does any of this really mean anything? No. The Lord calls those He foreordained to the scared apostleship and who are ready to accept the calling, regardless of the number of children they have. However, it is interesting that younger apostles tend to have fewer children, which parallels but does not match the general trends in the world.