How many grand lodges are there?
No single global total exists for all Grand Lodges, as Freemasonry has no supreme central governing body and each Grand Lodge is an independent, sovereign jurisdiction.
Historically, individual Grand Lodges established international networks by exchanging representatives. The Grand Lodge of Scotland recorded exchanges with over a dozen sovereign Grand Lodges across Europe and North America, including those of England, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Greece, and several state and provincial jurisdictions 1.
In contemporary practice, each sovereign body determines which other Grand Lodges it recognizes. As an indication of the scale of these recognition networks today, there are some 110 Grand Lodges in the world with which the Grand Lodge of India is on terms of recognition and fraternal relations, as an article on the Grand Lodge of India's website notes. Because mutual recognition varies and independent Grand Lodges exist across different national, regional, and jurisdictional boundaries, any overall count depends on which recognition list or Masonic tradition is consulted.
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