Most missionaries who return home early do so because of mental or physical health struggles, not rule-breaking or worthiness issues. Fewer than one in four early returns involve any kind of transgression or rule violation, the rest come down to health, family circumstances, or something else that made continuing unsafe or unsustainable.
If your missionary came home early, or you're trying to understand why this happens at all, what's important is that it happens more often than most families realize, and for reasons that have very little to do with failure. Here is what the actual research says, broken down by category, so you can replace assumption with fact.
How Common Is This, Really?
There is no single official number published by the Church, and the research on this subject is slim. However, what does exist paints a consistent picture: this is common, not rare. Jana Riess's Next Mormons Survey, reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, found that among millennial-generation missionaries, 35% of women and 29% of men returned home before completing their assigned service. Estimates shift depending on the source and the generation surveyed, but every credible figure points the same direction, early returns are a normal part of missionary service, not an exception to it. With the lowering of the starting age for both males and females and the increasing numbers of young people choosing to serve a mission, I would proffer that the number of early returnees has only increased rather than decreasing.
The Actual Breakdown, by Reason
The most detailed research on this comes from Kristine Doty-Yells (Doty et al., Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, 2015), associate professor and department chair of social work at Utah Valley University, who has studied early returned missionaries extensively. Her findings, and her direct comments to BYU's The Universe, break the reasons down clearly.
Anxiety, depression, panic attacks, suicidal ideation, and other mental health conditions are the single largest category of early returns.
Illness, injury, or a medical condition that makes continuing service unsafe or impossible.
Combined, these account for less than a quarter of all early returns, far smaller than most people assume.
In Doty-Yells's own words, less than 23 percent of early returns relate to rule violations or unresolved transgressions of any kind, and that number includes both categories combined. The remaining reasons fall under family emergencies and other personal circumstances that don't fit neatly into a single bucket, a parent's serious illness, a family crisis at home, or something else entirely outside the missionary's control.
Why Assumptions Run the Other Way
If most early returns are about health, why does the cultural assumption so often default to worthiness? Part of it is simply visibility. A missionary who comes home for depression or a knee injury doesn't always explain why, and so the silence often gets filled in by whoever is doing the guessing. Part of it is generational, older narratives about missionary service didn't have much language for mental health at all, so health-related returns were sometimes folded into vaguer, more judgment-coded explanations. My experience is that the culture and stigma around early returns has shifted dramatically for the better over the last 30 years, however, the self-criticism and condemnation do often still remain.
Whatever the reason, the gap between assumption and reality and the rigorous structure and strict obedience required in the mission environment that can sometimes lead to religious scrupulosity in young adults, are some of the reasons that create the shame so many early returned missionaries describe. If you want to understand that impact directly, read Did Coming Home Early Ruin God's Plan for You?
73% of early returned missionaries report feelings of shame and failure, according to Doty-Yells's research, and that number holds regardless of the reason they came home. It could be knee surgery. It could be depression. The shame seems to show up either way, which is exactly why understanding the real reasons matters. Some young people seem to navigate this more smoothly and are able to shed those feelings quickly, while others carry that weight for years.
What This Means If You're the Parent
If your missionary is still in the field and you're trying to figure out whether their struggle fits a health-related pattern or something else, that's a related but different question, one I've written about separately. Read Should Your Missionary Come Home Early? for a framework on telling the difference between normal growth-edge struggle and a genuine crisis.
If your missionary has already come home, the reason behind it matters less than what happens next. Whatever category their return falls into, there is one principle that must prevail: length of service has never been nor ever will be the measure of whether that service mattered. My extensive work with early returned missionaries has shown that despite the length of service, those missionaries had meaningful spiritual experiences, reported genuine connection and relationship with their Savior Jesus Christ, experienced profound growth both personally and spiritually, and had testimony building occurrences.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of missionaries come home early?
There is no single official figure published by the Church, but survey data gives a rough picture. Jana Riess's Next Mormons Survey, reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, found that 35% of female missionaries and 29% of male missionaries in the millennial generation returned home early. Estimates vary by source and generation, but early returns are far more common than most families realize.
Is it a sin to come home from a mission early?
No. Research shows fewer than one in four early returns involve any kind of rule violation or unresolved transgression. The large majority come home for mental or physical health reasons that have nothing to do with worthiness. Read more in Did Coming Home Early Ruin God's Plan for You?
Is there such a thing as honorable and dishonorable release when it comes to missions?
No. This is language that echoes military discharge terminology, honorable versus dishonorable discharge, but it is not something the Church itself uses. In fact, an official Church counseling resource for leaders specifically instructs the opposite: it encourages leaders and family to refer to the missionary as a "returned missionary," not an "early-returned" or "early-released missionary," specifically to help reduce the stigma associated with early releases. The honor and dishonor framing is cultural, not doctrinal, language that's circulated informally within LDS culture for decades, and it's exactly the kind of thinking that creates unnecessary shame for missionaries who came home for reasons entirely outside their control.
Do most early returned missionaries leave the church?
No, coming home early does not predict that someone will leave the church. What research does show is that how a missionary is received when they return, with support rather than shame, plays a large role in how they reengage with their faith and community afterward.