I found some more US #hamRadio license count data in various places and put it all together here. Download the CSV and fool around if you'd like! https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

Haven't gotten to state-by-state numbers yet.

There *is* a very rough interactive version of the total license plot if you trust me enough to download this HTML file with JS: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/src/branch/main/plots/total-over-time-y.html

Big shoutout to @dlarc for the W3HF dataset!

Added some more data from W5YI Report issues in @dlarc as well as class data from W3HF. Class plots are getting funky now.

https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

It's been a while but there is a slight flattening of the ARRL license count lately (~last three weeks).

I'm not caught up on the AE7Q and HamCall numbers, but they are consistently above the ARRL numbers.

And just an update on how this is going; every few weeks I update the latest data, but I'm also still going through historical data from the W5YI Report.

All data and plots here: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses #hamRadio #amateurRadio

Welp, that didn't last long.

My most recent update was only for the ARRL FCC numbers. All data and plots here: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses #hamRadio #amateurRadio

US #hamRadio license counts have been updated.

We continue to see a drop of ~1000-1500 licensed hams per month since December 2021. Here's the last two months of totals, according to the FCC counts posted by ARRL:

Now that I'm scraping some of these websites, the updates are easier (but I also forget about them). Data: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

I do have "enter numbers of new licenses" in the backlog, but there's only so much time I have for this. Licensing rate may help people who are afraid of the hobby dying.

There are bound to be errors in my data--but this is common ground to start from and fix as we go.

I updated the US #hamRadio license counts yesterday. No real change in trends. I need to prioritize filling in historical data so there aren't big gaps in the data.

https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

I am starting to play with new US FCC ham radio license counts scraped from AE7Q.

How should I structure these data so they are useful?

Attached is an example of what I can summarize down to for FCC actions on a certain date. Or I could just count brand new systematic callsigns--these indicate brand new hams (and maybe a few old hams getting back into it). Maybe the cleanest number for how fast/slow growth is over time.

AE7Q has historic data back to 1994. https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/issues/114

Interesting thing about the AE7Q database is that "License Status" is as of the date the query is run.

So if you query and see "new systematic call sign assigned" and "canceled" together, that means the call was canceled (maybe in favor of a vanity) *after* the activity date and *before* the query was run.

Another update to the US #hamRadio license counts. I made a few plots of the license action summary data from AE7Q's database at the bottom of the README.

It's interesting that new licenses seem to peak in April/May and valley in September for the last few years.

https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

Updated the easy total/state/city US #hamRadio data. Something interesting happening in total license count since July 2024.

I need to figure out why my license action scraper isn't working and update those data for the past few months.

https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

Updated the ham radio license data again: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

Pretty sure there is an error with my AE7Q script, which can luckily be checked against the database and fixed.

Sorry, I have not gotten anywhere with the several lovely tools that folks have posted in this thread for downloading the entire FCC database daily.

It's been about six months, time to update the #hamRadio license counts: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

This was a simple copy-paste with new data, I didn't add/modify any plots or do any better analysis.

All the sources for total US license counts seem to show a flattening or even a slight increase over the past 2-4 months, but still big differences (~830,000 vs ~740,000) in other sources vs. ARRL counts. So I would still look at large trends rather than detailed values.

Into the new year with an update on US #hamRadio license counts: https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses

I copied and pasted new data from where my scripts have been dumping it. We can see the effects of the government shutdown, although different sources seem to report it differently.

Raw data are available in the repo if you want to run your own analyses!

#hamRadio license data and plots updated at https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses.

So @VE2UWY had a comment about QST readership, so I stubbed out some data based on the "Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation" that US periodicals have to include.

It's still early days, but I bet we can fill this in pretty well.

Added a new (rough) plot.

@W1CDN

Thanks! I've had no luck finding the USPS statement in the PDFs generated from their web archive. They may "forget" to include that page when you ask the website to export "all" pages.