Dedications of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have gone from infrequent such events for houses of the Lord built near the main body of Saints through the 1800s to now 208 and counting dedicated houses of the Lord worldwide.
It wasn’t until the mid-1950s the Church first had temple dedications in successive years — and then two in a single year, in 1958.
Under the direction of Church Presidents Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson during the 1980s, the Church dedicated 26 temples — 17 alone from 1983 through 1985.
In meeting President Gordon B. Hinckley’s challenge to have 100 total dedicated temples by the end of the 20th century, the Church dedicated 15 houses of the Lord in 1999 and 34 in 2000 to end the century with 102 dedicated temples.
And during the 7½ years of current Church President Russell M. Nelson’s administration, the Church has dedicated 49 temples, with a half-dozen more dedications scheduled through late 2025 and early 2026.
That total is despite a 20-month period in 2020 and 2021 where no dedications were held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s a graph showing the dedications of Latter-day Saint temples over the years, from 1836 to 2025.
