Jehovah's Witnesses, has there been a year that they suffered a net annual loss? I am especially wondering about 1976, 1977 or 1978.?

You would need to access their annual Yearbook for those years - but they are not available online. I would be more interested in seeing their annual Profit & Loss statements in the 1980's after thousands of Witnesses left the organization. There may be a link between the state of their finances and the numbers of "publishers" in any given year. Let me see what I can find...

Column 2 Average Publishers, Column 3 Baptisms

1976 - 2,138,537 - 182,587

1977 - 2,117,194 - 114,786

1978 - 2,086,698 - 88,361

In 1990 worldwide Society revenue was just over $1 billion and in 1991 it had gone up to $1.248 billion. Found the JW Financial Report for 1998 from a Word document taken from the link below:

WTB&TS of New York: President Milton Henshel, Industry Publishing, Employees 3,415 (volunteers), Revenue $951 million. The Pennsylvanian company has revenue of $79 m. and net assets of approx. $600 m. If they made 10% net profit, that would accumulate approx. $100 million dollars to its net assets every year – a multi-billion dollar enterprise!

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Reg. # 11-1857820

Year Ended August 31, 1998

BALANCE SHEET...............................1998 / 1997

Assets

Cash and short-term investments........$296,522,535 / 209,383,368

Current receivables......................10,849,287 / 7,078,760

Long-term receivables...................277,421,320 / 267,435,970

Property and equipment..................120,697,680 / 120,547,679

TOTAL ..................................705,130,822 / 604,445,777

Liabilities

Accounts payable & accrued liabilities...$2,414,924 / 794,524

Conditional donations.....................7,489,654 / 8,743,636

Long-term payables.......................61,002,396 / 37,503,266

TOTAL LIABILITIES........................70,906,974 / 47,041,426

NET ASSETS.............................$634,223,848 / 604,445,777

COMBINED STATEMENT OF REVENUES AND CHANGES IN NET ASSETS

Revenues

Donations................................47,443,713 / 54,722,984

Interest.................................24,925,594 / 20,504,081

Kingdom Hall Assistance Fund..............3,218,791 / 3,900,595

Royalties, Rent and Other.................3,519,062 / 2,928,113

TOTAL REVENUES...........................79,107,160 / 82,055,773

Expenses

Kingdom Hall Assistance ..................2,123,945 / 2,485,514

Relief Fund..................................21,182 / 170,507

Convention Fund.................................430 / 0

Administrative Services.....................142,106 / 14,304

TOTAL EXPENSES............................2,287,663 / 2,670,325

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS.....................76,819,497 / 79,385,448

Net Assets At Beginning of Period.......557,404,351 / 469,616,477

Prior period adjustment...........................0 / 8,402,426

NET ASSETS AT END OF PERIOD............$634,223,848 / 557,404,351

NOTE: These figures are not worldwide figures, but are only for the WTB&TS of Pennsylvania.

Edit: Silly me - you wanted 1978, not 1998. Oh, and you did mean financial net loss? After searching, I honestly don't think that information is available.