B.C.'s largest professional organizations have experienced slow and steady growth over the past year, according to data collected for Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Professional Organizations in B.C. list (page 13).
The top 20 organizations have increased their membership an average of 4.4% in 2019 compared with 2018. However, the average has been inflated as a result of the newly formed BC College of Nursing Professionals (BCCNP), whose membership includes the amalgamation of three groups. The largest of the three was the College of Registered Nurses of BC, which previously held the No. 1 ranking on BIV’s list. The BCCNP’s 2019 membership is 59,461, 10.8% higher than the combined 53,642 members of the three organizations before amalgamation.
The median growth of the organizations on BIV’s list in 2019 was significantly lower at 1.6%, which suggests that most organizations on the list did not record BCCNP’s double-digit growth.
The Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (No. 14) recorded the second-largest one-year growth on the list: 5.3% to 6,000 members in 2019 from 5,700 in 2018. Over the past five years, the average membership at B.C.’s top professional organizations grew 19.3% to 14,187 in 2019 from 11,896 in 2015. However, during this time, the median membership of companies on BIV’s list fell 2.1% to 8,642 in 2019 from 8,825 in 2015. This indicates that the membership of larger organizations higher on the list grew while the membership of their smaller counterparts lower on the list decreased. Over the past five years, membership at the five largest professional organizations in B.C. grew an average of 24.7%.
Outside of the BCCNP, the BC Real Estate Association had the highest five-year growth in membership (22.7%) as it increased to 23,406 members in 2019 from 19,083 in 2015.
The Law Society of BC had the slowest five-year growth of the top five professional organizations. Its membership grew 11.4% to 15,060 in 2019 from 13,520 in 2015. •
