Editing List of Scientologists (section)

=== Church membership claims ===

The organization has said that it has eight to fifteen million members worldwide,<ref>Spokesperson Beth Akiyama in: [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05205/542895.stm Scientology comes to town] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505050603/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05205/542895.stm |date=May 5, 2007 }}, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 24, 2005</ref><ref>{{Cite book | author=L. Ron Hubbard | title=Final Blackout | publisher=Leisure Books | year=1970 | isbn=978-0-8439-0003-3| quote = HE IS ALSO renowned as the founder of Scientology and the creator of "Dianetics," with an estimated 15 million adherents around the world.}}</ref>{{r|deseret}} but this figure is known to be an aggrandizing fabrication.{{r|Bromley2007|p=24}}{{r|Flinn-WashingtonPost}} Religious scholar [[J. Gordon Melton]] has said that the organization's estimates of its membership numbers are exaggerated: "You're talking about anyone who ever bought a Scientology book or took a basic course. Ninety-nine percent of them don't ever darken the door of the church again." Melton has stated that if the claimed figure of 4 million American Scientologists were correct, "they would be like the Lutherans and would show up on a national survey".{{r|deseret}}

By the start of the 21st century, the organization was claiming it had 8 million members.{{r|Barrett|p=447}} Several commentators observe that this number is cumulative rather than collective: that is, it represents the total number of people who had any interaction with the Scientology organization since its founding, some of whom only had one or two auditing sessions.{{r|Barrett|p=447}}{{r|Richardson|p=292}} The organization also maintained that it was the world's fastest growing religion,{{r|Bromley2009|p=92}}{{r|Lewis2009b|p=120}} a title also claimed by several other groups including [[Mormonism|Mormons]], [[Modern paganism|modern Pagans]], and [[Baháʼí Faith|Baháʼí]].{{r|Lewis2009b|pp=117-118}}