FACTBOX: Mormonism -- an American religion

(Reuters) - The world leader of Mormons, Gordon B. Hinckley, who presided over a period of intensive growth for the religion, died on Sunday at the age of 97, officials said.

The following are facts about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon church is formally called:

* The once-isolated group, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is one of the fastest-growing and most affluent religions. More than half of its 12.9 million members live outside the United States, with a flourishing flock in Latin America.

* The Mormon church has distinctly American origins. It was founded in 1830 in upstate New York by Joseph Smith, who said he received the word of God from an angel named Moroni, who guided him to tablets that told the story of the Book of Mormon about an ancient civilization of Israelites sent by God to America. Smith could read and translate the tablets -- written in what he called "reformed Egyptian" hieroglyphics -- with the help of special transparent stones he used as spectacles. A year later, he was persecuted and forced to flee to the Midwest, where he was killed. His followers then undertook a mass 1,100-mile (1,800-km) migration in 1846-47 to Utah.

* Mormons have three books of scripture other than the Bible. One is the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe was translated from golden plates discovered by Smith. Adherents, who decline to use alcohol, coffee and tobacco, believe that God speaks through living apostles and prophets such as the church's president, Gordon Hinckley. Mormons also believe that Jesus visited the Americas after his resurrection and that there is no eternal hell.

* The Mormon church originally allowed polygamy. Smith took at least two dozen wives, say historians. His successor, Brigham Young, had about 20. The custom was officially banned in 1890 when Washington, angered by its spread, threatened to deny statehood to Utah. Today, Mormon leaders distance themselves from about 40,000 breakaway Mormons in Utah and nearby states who illegally continue the practice.

* Today, about 50,000 missionaries -- often young men in business suits walking the world's streets in pairs -- project a wholesome, family-oriented image that has helped swell global Mormon adherents by 36 percent from 1995 to 2005. In "Mormon America", religion writer Richard Ostling put the church's assets at more than $25 billion in 1999 with more than $5 billion in annual income.

(Compiled by Jason Szep)