Top 100 membership organisations 2024

Remarkably, 80% of the UK population are a member of something! That’s according to MemberWise’s latest list of the largest 100 membership organisations in the country.

The 2024 list shows the National Union of Students is the biggest membership organisation with 6.2m members, while Carers UK rounds out the top 100 with 47,000 members.

Some other interesting takeaways from the list are:

• Total membership of the top 100 is 40 million
• Of the top 100, trade union membership is around 16m, membership of recreational/sports organisations is 17m, professional membership organisations is 3m and political parties 750,000
• The biggest increase in membership over the past 12 months was Spotlight with a 38% growth; The Woodland Trust saw the largest decline at 34%
• The largest royal college is the Royal College of Nursing with 500,000 members
• The largest professional membership body is the ACCA with 241,000 members. In fact, accountancy bodies appear three times in the top 100, more than any other profession, with 600,000 members

MemberWise analysis estimates that in the UK there are:

• 8,000 membership organisations with membership exceeding 1,000
• 160 trade unions
• 450 professional membership organisations, of which 145 are chartered bodies

Our own online database lists some 1,250 trade associations.

If you need help in making your membership organisation bigger, better or brighter just contact us. We would love to hear from you.