US Amateur Licenses

Based on data from AHØA.org


Above are decadal license counts for the past forty years. Data for 1970, 1980 and 1990 are from QST Jan 2011 page 99.

How does this increase compare to the US population as a whole? The table below shows the US populataion, the total ham population and their changes per year. Before 2000 the total amateur population grew at rates well above the population as a whole. Over the next decade total ham growth slowed only to increase again in the past few years.

Year US Pop
Millions
% Increase
per year
All Hams
Thousands
% Increase
per year
% US Pop
1970 203   285  0.140
1980 225 1.08 433 5.19 0.192
1990 249 1.07 494 1.41 0.198
2000 279 1.20 677 3.70 0.243
2010 308 1.04 682 0.07 0.221
2015 320 0.78 725 1.26 0.227
2019 327 0.55 755 1.03 0.231