At the end of 2024, there were 194 fewer licensed amateur operators in Minnesota than we started 2024 with. That's a 1.73% decline from the end of 2023. No license Class expanded in the state, unlike a national trend of small growth in the Extra Class figures.
Instead, MN saw a decline of 12 Extra Class licenses in 2024. Of that total MN decline of 194, 97 were Technician Class. That's a much smaller drop than in the last two previous years, but it's still a decline.
The number of Novice Class licenses declined by 12, and the number of Advanced Class licenses dropped by 56 in 2024. Round it out with a decline of 17 in the General Class licenses in MN.
Since 4/2023, the state has lost over 1400 amateur licenses from the total. Fortunately, the unprecedented decline of 2022 has not been duplicated since. Still, it seems to be weak when it's pointed out that we "only" lost under 200 during the past year, instead of 1000 like other years.
The decline in the General Class is a bit concerning. The number of General Class licenses only declined by 8 over 2023. Now we see an annual decline of 17. I don't want to read too much into such small numbers, but it's not a positive indication when the amateur population starts declining faster.
The slow drip in the obsolete license Classes (Novice and Advanced) create a stiff head-wind for stability. Just to stay even, MN would've needed to gain 68 licenses -- something that seems increasingly unlikely -- to account for the losses in the obsolete Classes. Since it hasn't been possible in quite a while to add new Novices and Advanced to the totals, these two declining becomes a relevant indicator of a particular demographic.
There were scattered days of gains throughout 2024, but they were ultimately overwhelmed by days of losses, month after month. We are still adding to the amateur population, but the number leaving it is greater.
The amateur population only increased in 10 states during 2024. 11 states had a bigger percentage decline than MN. Sadly, annual percentage losses like we saw in 2024 here in MN are quite typical around the country.
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