The total membership as of October 2004 was 1,719 (the final count for the year is 1,731, the highest since 1996) and at that time the WHA office looked into the geographical breakdown of the membership. 

California, the most populous U.S. state, is not surprisingly the state with the most WHA members at 298 members, or just over 17 percent of the membership. Texas, the second most populous state, is our second largest in terms of membership at 136 or nearly 8 percent of membership. The next three states are Colorado with 127 members, Arizona with 107, and New Mexico with 73. New Mexico’s high number is particularly significant because of these states they have the highest proportion of members to the state’s population at about 4 members per 100,000 people. Colorado has almost 3 per 100,000 and Arizona has about 2 members per 100,000 people. Wyoming, the least populated state in the U.S., according to the 2000 U.S. Census, has the highest per capita membership at over 6 members for 100,000 people.

Of the 1,719 members, there are 32 international members. Nineteen of these are Canadian and our overseas members include folks in Australia, Japan, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

We are pleased to find that the WHA is un-represented in only one state. If you know any historians in Delaware, get them to sign up and we will have 100 percent representation from all states.

Membership and Conference Attendance History

The results of the recent membership survey should be available for the next WHA Newsletter. In the meantime, we thought members might be interested in membership and conference attendance figures for the previous few years.  These numbers clearly reflect the loyalty of the WHA membership and the overall stability of the organization.