Amateur Radio License Statistics

Joe Speroni (AH0A) has an excellent web page (linked below) that lists US amateur license statistics from 1997 to the
present, derived from the FCC's Universal Licensing System web site. Unfortunately, data from the pre-ULS era is not
generally available. It was recently pointed out to me that the old callbooks had some of this data, and it didn't require
me to actually count each of the listings. So I have reproduced below some of the data that is available from the old books.
The actual data available changed over the years as follows:
- Starting with the Winter 1960-61 issue, the cover of the callbooks listed the total number of US amateur licenses.
- Starting with the Fall 1967 issue, there was a "census" page that listed amateur licenses broken down by both
	license class and by state. I have listed below only the totals by license class (similar to Speroni's data).
	Note that this census page did not always include all 50 states and all US possessions. This means that
	the totals of the license classes listed understate the actual number of US amateurs in those classes,
	by excluding AK and HI (1967 to 1969), PR (1967 to 1976) and the other possessions (1967 to 1979).
	Starting with Winter 79-80 the census data included all licensees.
- Starting with the Summer 66 issue, a "world census" page was included, showing licenses by country. That data
	is not included here.
- Starting with the Winter 87-88 issue, a second US "census" page was included, showing US licenses by state and
	(three-digit) zip code. That data is also not included here.
P.S. Please forgive the ugly presentation of this web page. Given the nature of the data, it seemed that Excel would
	be a natural format for the raw information, and I just used Excel itself to save this as HTML. Note that
	the raw .xls version of this page is available from the links section below.
Callbook Issue		Total US
Winter	1960-1	225,000
Spring	1961	225,000
Summer	1961	225,000
Fall	1961	231,000
Winter	1961-2	237,000
Spring	1962	239,000
Summer	1962	244,000
Fall	1962	249,000
Winter	1962-3	252,000
Spring	1963	255,517
Summer	1963	258,347
Fall	1963	263,370
Winter	1963-4	266,202
Spring	1964	268,113
Summer	1964	264,804
Fall	1964	265,858
Winter	1964-5	264,810
Spring	1965	265,067
Summer	1965	269,402
Fall	1965	270,878
Winter	1965-6	271,422
Spring	1966	270,567
Summer	1966	275,414
Fall	1966	277,604
Winter	1966-7	280,306
Spring	1967	280,016
Summer	1967	283,400
Callbook Issue		Total US	Novice	Tech	Tech Plus3	Cond2	General	Advanced	Extra	Club	Military	Multiple4	Rptr5
Fall	1967	288,892	13,860	61,797		42,732	113,371	38,980	5,080	3,435	1,529	3,655
Winter	1967-8	294,191	15,894	62,974		42,896	115,049	39,084	5,201	3,520	1,539	3,445
Spring	1968	292,914	12,467	63,693		42,825	116,005	39,040	5,875	3,583	1,543	3,229
Summer	1968	295,111	11,820	64,870		42,963	116,822	39,406	6,104	3,703	1,562	3,179
Fall	1968	290,460	13,124	63,505		41,626	116,513	39,638	6,436	3,554	1,267
Winter	1968-9	284,674	10,882	61,157		40,159	110,915	44,595	7,747	3,455	1,040
Spring	1969	282,330	12,142	59,357		38,920	107,388	46,859	8,538	3,384	927
Summer	1969	287,063	14,591	59,948		38,949	106,976	48,180	9,047	3,480	933
Fall	1969	286,026	17,467	57,958		37,668	105,182	48,873	9,520	3,452	880
Winter	1969-70	287,214	19,855	56,764		36,773	104,325	50,116	9,953	3,443	839
Spring	1970	287,105	21,582	56,476		36,873	103,096	52,149	10,497	3,540	923
Summer	1970 7
Fall	1970	289,879	22,747	56,256		36,013	100,322	55,029	11,206	3,574	904
Winter	1970-1	289,004	22,613	56,364		35,579	99,076	56,447	11,600	3,586	889
Spring	1971	289,942	23,217	56,304		35,257	98,493	57,113	11,780	3,631	874
Summer	1971	291,782	25,322	56,247		34,654	97,933	57,800	11,999	3,666	836
Fall	1971	287,655	23,650	55,796		33,882	97,039	58,604	12,195	3,644	796
Winter	1971-2	286,444	22,503	55,780		33,661	96,280	59,316	12,391	3,640	772
Winter	1972-3	286,684	22,607	55,570		32,214	93,448	61,572	13,063	3,664	712
Winter	1973-4	283,957	21,684	54,631		30,927	91,308	63,600	13,754	3,705	653
Winter	1974-5	277,593	20,453	53,074		29,352	89,769	64,942	14,278	3,458	586
Winter	1975-6	280,919	21,518	54,239		27,975	85,140	69,194	15,200	3,475	534		1,975
Winter	1976-7	305,590	31,282	62,218		26,207	84,697	73,144	16,483	3,948	489		3,279
Winter	1977-8	348,679	58,794	67,248		19,311	94,452	78,577	19,794	4,232	472		4,446
Winter	1978-9	374,487	64,526	70,977		13,394	107,493	84,709	23,602	4,208	441		4,429
Winter	1979-80	393,353	75,036	71,833			125,559	87,127	25,506	3,855	386		4,051
Winter	1980-1	398,829 6	76,161	72,075			126,115	90,165	27,063	3,589	345		3,283
Winter	1981-2	406,417	78,586	75,915			123,692	92,577	29,594	3,351	302		2,400
Winter	1982-3	421,732	87,479	79,620			123,161	95,509	31,782	2,627	253		1,301
Winter	1983-4	433,921	95,785	80,084			122,231	96,799	34,072	3,379	276		1,295
Winter	1984-5	438,007	97,316	82,979			120,544	97,903	35,550	3,384	279		52
Winter	1985-6	436,793	89,297	86,028			120,836	99,110	37,848	3,384	290
Winter	1986-7	442,136	87,943	89,835			120,307	99,881	40,486	3,394	290
Winter	1987-8	455,642	91,830	96,503			119,953	100,505	43,171	3,390	290
Winter	1988-9	459,635	88,459	103,642			117,330	100,200	46,493	3,221	290
Winter	1989-90	466,511	86,333	112,344			115,979	100,418	48,948	2,280	209
Winter	1990-1	494,260	93,634	124,600			118,368	102,949	52,166	2,313	230
	1992 1	524,782	96,914	146,893			120,165	103,332	55,008	2,307	163
	1993	575,146	99,193	184,392			122,735	106,964	59,382	2,315	165
	1994	614,398	101,934	214,076			124,432	108,887	62,601	2,316	152
	1995	656,726	99,720	244,824	5,039		126,611	111,735	66,343	2,315	139
	1996	691,775	98,305	237,868	40,559		127,856	113,963	69,781	3,293	150
	1997	715,462	90,173	235,640	71,681		126,978	113,240	73,064	4,534	152
Notes:	1	Up through 1991, callbooks were listed as the "Winter" edition for the following year. Starting in 1992,
		the Winter designation was eliminated.
	2	All Conditional licenses were merged into General by the end of 1979.
	3	Tech Plus licenses were first listed separately in 1995.
	4	I'm not sure, but this could have been referring to secondary station licenses.
	5	Repeater stations were separately licensed beginning in 1975, but weren't renewed after 1980.
	6	I can't explain the 33 license discrepancy between the total listed and the sum of the license classes. The data on this
		callbook's census page is obviously defective, but I can not figure out exactly what the error is. This data is exactly as
		given in the callbook's summary line.
	7	Unfortunately I don't (yet) have a Summer 1970 callbook. (Contact me if you have one to sell!)
Color Code		Data includes only the lower 48 states and D.C.
		Data includes only the 50 states and D.C.
		Data includes all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico
		Data includes all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and all other U.S. possessions
Links:		AH0A Web Page
		FCC ULS
		Excel version of this page
		Return to W3HF home page
Date:		3 August 2007
Contact:		W3HF