Church News - Church Almanac

Continuing in the tradition of Mormon almanacs from the mid-nineteenth century, the Deseret News publishes the Deseret News Church Almanac (or just Church Almanac), composed of LDS Church facts and statistics edited and prepared by the staff of the Church News. The almanac started in 1974 as an annual publication, then became biennial in 1984, then annual again in 2002.

With access to records and the LDS Church Historical Department, the almanac prints some material not available in other publications. It contains history and membership statistics of geographical areas for the year ending before the previous year (e.g., the 2009 almanac includes data up to the year-end 2007). It also has brief biographies of all who have been leaders of the larger church and a summary of church news from the previous year. Each annual edition includes features on a specific historical subject or period, often related to a church current event, such as the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple, the Salt Lake City Olympics, Joseph Smith's bicentennial birthday, the Mountain Meadows massacre sesquicentennial, or Gordon B. Hinckley's death.

In 2009, the almanac consolidated and modified most sections to improve design and dramatically reduce size. The new format included many more visuals, as well as expanded biographies of First Presidency members. State, province, and country history was replaced with additional church area information.