Polygamy in the USA

Q. How many people practice polygamy in USA?

A There is no official count, but estimates offered by a variety of sources range from 20,000 to 100,000.

Sarah Barrington Gordon, a law and history professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and author of the Mormon Question: Polygamy and the Constitutional Conflict in 19^th Century America, suggests the number she is most familiar with are closer to the 20,000 to 50,000 range.

Most polygamists are concentrated in the West, particularly in Utah, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, and Arizona. Some are evangelical Christians. Some are Muslims. Others are Mormon fundamentalists, although official church policy excommunicates those who practice it.

(USA Today, Tuesday, May 9, 2006, p.2D)