How associations are trending in 2012
TRENDS compared a sample of data from the new 2012 National Trade and Professional Associations directory with figures from the 2011 directory, to create a current snapshot of the association community. Washington perennially leads in number of association headquarters, but there are significant changes in associations by industry.
• Geographic distribution. The Washington metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia, dominate in the number of association headquarters, remaining the center of government advocacy efforts.
The top-10 states for association headquarters are DC, followed by Virginia, Illinois, New York, Maryland, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. 2012 figures show that association headquarters grew 13 percent in Washington to 1,225. Virginia also experienced a significant increase – nearly 7 percent to 988. All other states in the top 10 show slight increases, as well.
Most all states showed increases, with just a handful that show very small decreases: Indiana, from 120 to 118; Iowa, 42 to 41; Nevada, 21 to 20; and South Dakota, eight to seven.
• CEO gender distribution. Of the 13,733 chief staff executives for whom NTPA has gender information, women make up 38 percent, the same as last year. Also, the total number for which there was gender information was smaller in 2011, 13,346.
Last year, women overtook men in female-to-male ratio for staff make-up in the association sector, though the number is by less than 1 percent.
• Distribution by industry. Education saw a huge increase in number of associations listed in NTPA 2012, from 793 in the 2011 directory, to 900. Medicine, however, saw a significant drop from 806 in 2011 to 611, even after coupled now with health care and mental health. Rounding out the top five are manufacturers, from 575 to 595; government-related associations, 335 (last year listed as “government”) to 406; law/law firms, 207 (listed as just “law” in 2011) to 242.
Two of four sectors that experienced increases in 2011 also had gains in the 2012 directory: medicine and government-related associations saw a decrease, but banking/finance/investments grew from 117 (as “finance”) to 172; and business from 165 to 186.
Note: Not all of the data reflects new associations formed, but associations that were added to the NTPA database in the past year.
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