These are the numbers of current,
unexpired FCC-issued amateur
radio licenses held by individuals
on the stated dates, and the
percentage of the total number
of active licenses that class contains:


As of May 14, 2000:

Novice- 49,329 (7.3%)
Technician - 205,394 (30.4%)
Technician Plus - 128,860 (19.1%)
General - 112,677 (16.7%)
Advanced - 99,782 (14.8%)
Extra - 78,750 (11.7%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 334,254 (49.5%)

Total General/Advanced/Extra - 291,209 (43.2%)

Total all classes - 674,792


As of February 20, 2007:

Novice - 22,893 (3.5%) [decrease of 26,436]
Technician - 293,177 (44.8%) [increase of 87,783]
Technician Plus - 30,881 (4.7%) [decrease of 97,979]
General - 130,092 (19.9%) [increase of 17,415]
Advanced - 69,040 (10.6%) [decrease of 30,742]
Extra - 108,205 (16.5%) [increase of 29,455]

(percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 324,058 (49.5%) [decrease of 10,196]

Total General/Advanced/Extra - 307,337 (47.0%) [increase of 16,128]

Total all classes - 654,288 (decrease of 20,504)

Note that these totals do not include licenses
that have expired but are in the grace period.

They also do not include club, military
or other station-only licenses.

Note also that effective April 15, 2000, new Novice,
Technician Plus and Advanced licenses are no longer
issued.

Since April 15, 2000, FCC has renewed all
existing Technician Plus licenses as Technician. By May of 2010, the
number of Technician Plus licenses
should drop to zero, because all of them will have been renewed as
Technician or allowed to expire. It is therefore
informative to consider the totals of the two classes,
since the Technician class includes a significant
number of Technician Plus licenses renewed as Technician.

73 de Jim, N2EY