by G1PIE » Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:00 am
Following a Freedom of Information request Ofcom has now issued what is believed to be the correct figure for the number of individual radio amateurs in the UK
Stewart Baker G3RXQ has made several FoI's to Ofcom to try and find out how many individuals hold one or more amateur licences but the first couple of responses from Ofcom gave a clearly incorrect figure which was just below 10,000.
On August 3 he made another another attempt and on September 4 Ofcom supplied the correct information.
Ofcom said:
"As of 1 August 2018 I can confirm that the total number of individuals holding one or more current UK Amateur Radio Licences is 75,660."
"It has come to our attention that the figure in our letter to you dated 17 April 2018 concerning Amateur Radio Licence statistics as of 1 April 2018 is incorrect. As at that date, the correct figure for the total number of individuals holding one or more current UK Amateur Radio Licences is 74,646."
This figure enables an estimate to be made for the number of radio amateurs who die each year.
It believed the RSGB has about 19,000 UK members who are licenced amateurs, this is about 25% of total UK amateurs. From an analysis of the Silent Key column in 2015 RadCom it would appear that about 248 licenced UK RSGB members are dying each year. This suggests that maybe in total some 992 UK amateurs die each year.
Just over 1400 people pass the RSGB Foundation exam each year. Foundation was initially designed to provide an introduction to the hobby and it was accepted there could be a high drop-out rate, up to 50%, as people tried out the hobby but found in the first year or so it wasn't for them. Anecdotal evidence since 2002 appears to confirm a 50% drop-out rate is broadly correct. This suggests of the 1400 newcomers each year only about 700 may continue with the hobby, this is less than the apparent annual death rate.
Additionally an unknown number may decide after 5, 10 or 15 years to try a different hobby or they may no longer be active for various reasons. There is no way of telling how many as the licences are lifetime, the active UK amateur population could be declining at an alarming rate!
RSGB,RAOTA,WAB, DMC, EPC.