Organizational Aspects
In recent years, the Church of Scientology has heavily promoted and greatly increased the profile and size of the Volunteer Ministers program. Church publications say that there are over 95,000 Volunteer Ministers - more than the Peace Corps, Americorps and United Nations volunteer programs combined. The Church has set a target of recruiting as many Volunteer Ministers as there are policemen in each of the principal countries in which Scientology is active. In 2001, the Church announced a number of target quotas for Volunteer Minister recruitment, as follows:
| Country | Total inhabitants | Quota for VMs |
| Australia | 18,783,551 | 58,229 |
| Austria | 8,139,299 | 5,231 |
| Canada | 31,006,347 | 6,118 |
| Denmark | 5,356,845 | 6,603 |
| France | 58,978,172 | 82,831 |
| Germany | 82,087,361 | 254,469 |
| Italy | 56,735,130 | 175,878 |
| Sweden | 8,911,296 | 27,624 |
| United States | 272,639,608 | 845,184 |
However, an ARIS demographic study by the University of New York estimated in 2000 that there may only be 55,000 Scientologists in the whole of the United States.
Read more about this topic: Volunteer Ministers
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