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Writer's pictureNathan Augustine

The Largest Temples

Updated: Sep 30


Data for the above chart comes from Wikipedia


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a truly world wide organization with congregations and temples scattered throughout the world. However the Church began in the United States and that is where it is headquartered.


Although right now there are more temples outside the US than inside, those inside the US are much larger. This makes sense because the world is a very big place and members are more spread out outside the US than they are within it. It also makes sense to put the largest temples where the heaviest concentrations of Church members are. Since Utah has the most members, more than half of the 20 largest temples in the world are located within that state. The above chart shows the square footage of the 20 largest temples in the world and the 20 largest temples outside the US. The Mexico City and Cardston Alberta temples appear on both sides of the chart because they are the only temples outside the US among the 20 largest in the world.


Payson Utah Temple


13 of the 20 largest temples are in Utah. With 197 dedicated temples there are 22 temples in Utah with a total square footage of 2,081,318 (193,361 m2) or 27% of the total square footage of all temples.


Oakland California Temple


2 of the 20 largest are in California. No other state or province has more than one. All but 2 of the top 20 are in the US.


São Paulo Brazil Temple


Of the largest temples outside the US: South America has six, Europe has five, North America has four, Asia has four and Australasia has one.


Los Angeles California Temple


The largest temple outside Utah is Los Angeles California at 190,614 sq. ft. (17.709 m2) (Los Angeles California Temple). The Los Angeles California temple was larger than Salt Lake when the Church dedicated it but the Church made additions to Salt Lake (a multi-story annex, a new entrance, underground dressing rooms, etc.) between 1962 and 1967, making it the largest and the only temple with more than 200,000 sq. ft. (18.500 m2) (Los Angeles Times: From the Archives: The Los Angeles California Temple and The Design, Construction, and Role of the Salt Lake Temple)


Mexico City Mexico Temple


The largest temple outside the US is Mexico City Mexico at 116,642 sq. ft. (10.836 m2), which is the only temple with more than 100,000 sq. ft. (9.000 m2) outside the US (Mexico City Mexico Temple).


Preston England Temple


The largest temple outside North America is Preston England at 69,630 sq. ft. (6.469 m2) (Preston England Temple).


With 197 dedicated temples the total square footage of all operating temples is 7,598,365

(705.911 m2) with those inside the US totaling 4,915,168 (456.634 m2) (65%) and those outside the US totaling 2,683,197 (249.277 m2) (35%).


With 197 dedicated temples the total number of operating temples inside the US is 94 (48%); the total number of operating temples outside the US is 103 (52%) (Temples List).


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