The province’s largest professional organizations have been steadily increasing their membership over the past three years.
According to Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Professional Organizations in B.C. list (page 16), the average membership numbers increased 52.4% to 12,874 members in 2018 from 8,446 in 2015.
While average membership numbers over the past year increased 2.7%, the median fell 14.4%. This was the largest decline since 2015, when median membership fell 37%, or 2,960 members, from the previous year.
The rise in the average compared with the median decline points to an overall slower membership expansion among professional organizations lower on BIV’s list compared with the growth of organizations higher on the list.
The BC Real Estate Association (No. 4) had the largest one-year and five-year increases in membership of B.C.’s five largest professional organizations: up 6.2% in 2018 compared with 2017 and up 24.1% since 2014.
B.C.’s largest professional organization, the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia, posted the lowest one-year growth in members on the list and the lowest five-year growth in members out of the top five largest professional organizations. Since 2014, it has expanded its membership by 2.4%.
Only two organizations on the list posted a one-year decline in membership.
The ranks of the Applied Science Technologists & Technicians of BC fell 3.8%, or 400 members, to 10,200 in 2018 from 10,600 in 2017. The Insurance Institute of BC lost five members in 2018 from 2017, declining 0.1%.
