AF6AY wrote:
[...]

There isn't any sampling or 'plus or minus percentage' in
regard to the FCC license class information in its database
files. It isn't a result of polling of any kind. It is data
direct from the only agency that grants amateur radio
licenses in the USA. Totals are what they are.



You missed my point. The figures for new licenses and expired
licenses are, no doubt, perfectly accurate. However, those quantities
may be eclipsed by two other variables that we cannot quantify:

1) The number of hams who have died but have not yet been dropped from
the rolls because the FCC does not know that they are dead

2) The number of hams who have stopped turning on their radios

--
Klystron