ARRL membership drops 8.3% in 2024

Note that the chart starts at 120k to make the annual change clearer

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national society for radio amateurs in the USA and is one of the largest if not the largest such organisation in the world. They also produce the QST magazine which is one of the largest amateur radio magazines in the world.

ARRL Membership... On the 14th of November 2025, the ARRL finally released their report for 2024 and they reveal that they had 137,114 members at years end. As can be seen from the chart above, this is a drop of about 8.3%.

One of the biggest reasons for the large drop is probably the increase in membership fees introduced at the start of 2024... see previous post.

This price increase was somewhat controversial in that it meant that members who wanted a hard copy of the QST magazine had to pay extra for the first time.

Members who paid an annual membership saw their subscription fee rise 20% if they got the online version of QST. If they wanted the physical version sent to them by post then the subscription went up by 71%.

I think they were expecting a drop in membership because of the price increase but I'm not sure they expected it to be this big.

Note that the chart starts at 17 to make the annual change clearer

The large drop in membership also means that even fewer radio amateurs in the US are now members of the ARRL. The chart above shows that percentage of US radio amateurs who are members and it has dropped to 18.4%.

The * is there because the ARRL also has overseas members but it's safe to say that the vast majority of members are US citizens.

ARRL Finances... According to the report, the ARRL reported an income from operations of $458,000  in 2024 versus a deficit spending from operations of $1.4 million in 2023.

They report publication costs going from $2,071,780 in 2023 down to $1,648,324. Likewise, the 'shipping and forwarding' costs reduced from $1,329,088 to $678,273.

This seems to be largely due to members opting for the cheaper membership rate with the digital online version of QST.

Advertising... They also report that In 2024, the total advertising revenue across ARRL platforms dropped by 21% to $1.1 million. They explain this by way of a general contraction within the industry but 21% seems like a huge amount in one year.

In Conclusion... If you read through the report then it's obvious there is a lot of 'cherry picking' with selective stats. At the end of the day, the ARRL membership is down 8.3% for the year.

If we consider that many of the current members are likely to have availed of the cheaper 3-year membership offer in the past then some of those are likely not to renew and there will be a further drop in membership in 2025 and 2026.

One of the big problems that the ARRL had was their 'Life Membership' programme. This was really a case of short term gain in terms of income but a long term pain in terms of costs and liability.

By moving the Life Members to a digital version of QST, the ARRL have eliminated a lot if not all of that long term liability and cost in terms of printing and posting of the magazine. The distribution costs for a digital version of QST is the same regardless of whether there are 50,000 members or 250,000.

That cost saving however was a one off. From here on, they're going to be trying to balance their spending with a reducing membership and reduced income from advertising.

If the ARRL finances start to go the wrong way in the future, there may be no magic rabbit to pull out of the hat to fix it.

Links... 

1) ARRL 2024 Report

2) There seems to be some governance issues with the ARRL at present and Frank, K4FMH often covers this in his blog... https://k4fmh.com/

ARRL raise membership fees as numbers drop

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national society for radio amateurs in the USA and is one of the largest if not the largest such organisation in the world. They also produce the QST magazine which is one of the largest amateur radio magazines in the world.

Back in July of 2023, they announced that they would be increasing their membership fees by between 20% to 71% at the start of 2024. In this post, I'll look at some of the changes.

Membership - US Members...

• US members of the ARRL paid $49 per annum up to and including 2023. For that fee, they were able to receive the QST magazine by standard post. As of the 1st of January 2024, that membership fee now increases by 20% to $59 and for this, they will have access to only the online digital version of QST.
• If US members wish to keep receiving QST by standard mail then they will have to pay $84, a 71% increase on their old subscription of $49.
• US members who were getting QST by first class mail will see their subscription increase by 37.5% from $96 to $132.
• Three year membership fees follow much the same pattern... 3-year membership with QST mailed out goes from $140 to $174 for membership and digital QST only, a jump of 24%. To keep getting QST by mail for 3-years, members will have to pay $249 instead of $140, a 71% jump.

Membership - International Members... As non-US members, it's probably fair to say that most international members have joined to get access to the QST magazine.

• International members who currently get the digital version of QST will see their fees go up by 20% from $49 to $59. The 3-year option goes up by 24% from $140 to $174.
• International members who currently get QST by standard mail will see their fees increase by 25% from $76 to $95. The 3-year option goes up by 30% from $217 to $282.

Big changes as numbers fall... The last increase in membership fees was 8-years ago in 2016 so some may feel that an increase is inevitable. I suspect the size of the jump this time though will be too much for some.

In 2022, the ARRL saw an unexpected 4% drop in membership numbers as can be seen above. This I presume was due to the cost of living crisis and inflation and for some, ARRL membership was something they could do without. This suggests that ARRL membership is sensitive to price and all of this happened well before the price increase at the start of 2024.

The ARRL membership numbers since 2001 are shown above. You can see the strong growth up until 2015 and then the drop once the membership fee was increased from $39 to $49.

In 2016, the membership fees were increased when the numbers were at a peak. That is in marked contrast to now when membership seems to be in decline. They have yet to announce the 2023 membership numbers and there may well be a mini-surge as people avail of the lower prices before the prices go up. 

However, the latest stats from the FCC shows that the number of radio amateurs in the USA has dropped about 2% in 2022 and is back down to roughly what they were in 2018. It seems that a large recovery in ARRL membership in 2023 is unlikely. 

Does the ARRL represent radio amateurs in the USA??... At the end of 2022, there were just over 769,000 amateur radio callsigns in the United States. The ARRL membership at the end of 2022 was 151,840. This means that just 19.7% of radio amateurs in the United States are members of the ARRL. Back in 2015, that figure was 23.2%.

This seems to me to be a very low figure and it does raise the question about  how any organisation can claim to be a national organisation when they can only attract less than 20% of the total number of radio amateurs in their country.

If we were to look at the UK, there are about 101,000 licences on issue. Due to multiple licences, this in reality means that there are almost 70,000 licensed operators. The RSGB has about 21,200 members which is about 30% of the amateur radio population in the UK. This is in marked contrast to the figure for the ARRL.

UK members of the RSGB receive the RadCom magazine and have to pay £65 per annum ($83) which is similar to the new ARRL fee. Why does membership of the ARRL in the USA seem so poor compared to the RSGB in the UK?

Looking ahead???... With membership falling and a hike in membership, it seems likely that the next few years will be turbulent ones for the ARRL. It currently represents less than 20% of radio amateurs in the USA and that figure seems likely to keep dropping.

If the membership numbers drop a significant amount then that's going to put pressure on the finances of the organisation and it's likely a review of costs will be needed. It's obvious that a full colour printed magazine that is posted out to members is going to be increasingly more expensive and difficult in the future.

As for a solution?... There are a multitude of posts online with people complaining about the ARRL but there seem to be very few solutions. Increasing the membership fees seems like a short term fix but I suspect it's only delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later, they're going to have to look at costs and make cuts.

From my own perspective, I used to be an overseas member of the ARRL in the late 1990's and early 2000's. At the time, information about amateur radio was at a premium and the QST magazine was very informative.

Fast forward to today and we have a multitude of websites, blogs, podcasts, social media, YouTube, etc. The ARRL as a content creator now has to compete with all of these other sources which are mostly free. It's already hard enough to keep up with all of the information that's available online for free without having to pay to look at what's behind a paywall.

Video... In this video, ARRL Director of Marketing and Innovation Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, chats with Kevin Thomas, W1DED, host of W1DED WW Ham Radio on YouTube, about the recent survey of members where 20,000 members responded and about the ARRL itself.

In summary... It's in no-ones interest to have a weak ARRL. As can be seen at the recent ITU conference in Doha, some amateur radio bands are under threat and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) needs strong member societies to support its work.

I suspect the next few years will be difficult ones for the ARRL as their membership seems likely to drop. They have an increasingly elderly membership base that wants things to stay the same in a world that is rapidly moving to digital.

It seems to me that that the next decade is likely to be a difficult one for the ARRL as they will have to make major changes to stay relevant.

Links...

1) ARRL website

2) Article by K4FMH