USCF Membership Numbers (4/2008)
Texas 8007
New York 7046
Illinois 4582
N. California 4572
S. California 4572
Florida 4374
Pennsylvania 3598
New Jersey 3274
Virginia 2830
Ohio 2573
Michigan 2485
Arizona 2414
Maryland 2256
North Carolina 2063
Massachusetts 1934
Indiana 1841
Kentucky 1794
Tennessee 1677
Georgia 1646
Connecticut 1304
Wisconsin 1269
Washington 1252
Missouri 1229
Colorado 1174
Minnesota 1174
Oklahoma 930
Nevada 860
Louisiana 819
New Mexico 794
Alabama 781
Oregon 723
Iowa 638
Maine 587
Utah 554
Kansas 542
South Carolina 508
New Hampshire 473
Foreign (ex Mex/Can) 398
Canada 364
West Virginia 348
Nebraska 320
Rhode Island 310
Mississippi 278
Arkansas 268
District of Columbia 253
Idaho 237
South Dakota 202
Hawaii 200
Vermont 195
Delaware 165
US Territories 147
Alaska 141
North Dakota 101
Military 99
Montana 88
Wyoming 57
Mexico 50
Source: USCF
Texas rules!
What was the Texas count in 2005?
Here’s a ranking of the 50 states, on the basis of population, using your data and US Census data.
The number to the right of each state is the number of USCF members per 100,000 population.
1 Maine 44.4
2 Kentucky 43.0
3 New Mexico 41.2
4 Arizona 40.6
5 Maryland 40.3
6 New Jersey 37.6
7 Virginia 37.4
8 Connecticut 37.1
9 New York 36.6
10 New Hampshire 36.1
11 Illinois 35.9
12 Nevada 35.6
13 Texas 35.0
14 Vermont 31.3
15 Massachusetts 30.2
16 Indiana 29.4
17 Pennsylvania 28.9
18 Rhode Island 28.8
19 Tennessee 28.1
20 Oklahoma 26.2
21 South Dakota 26.0
22 California 25.3
23 Colorado 25.2
24 Florida 24.6
25 Michigan 24.6
26 North Carolina 23.8
27 Wisconsin 22.9
28 Minnesota 22.9
29 Ohio 22.4
30 Utah 22.4
31 Iowa 21.5
32 Alaska 21.2
33 Missouri 21.2
34 Washington 19.9
35 Oregon 19.9
36 Kansas 19.7
37 Delaware 19.6
38 West Virginia 19.2
39 Nebraska 18.2
40 Georgia 18.1
41 Louisiana 18.1
42 Alabama 17.1
43 Idaho 16.6
44 North Dakota 15.9
45 Hawaii 15.7
46 South Carolina 11.9
47 Wyoming 11.2
48 Arkansas 9.6
49 Mississippi 9.5
50 Montana 9.4
Also, the total of 83,370 is higher than the last time you published these statistics a few months ago, when the total was81,846. So, it seems that membership has grown by about 1500!
Best regards,
Eric Strickland
Wow, I’m in the 4th smallest…
Go Navy!
Come on… this looks fudged
Northern and Southern California have the exact same numbers. And if you look at some of the others – Hawaii and Mexico for example – the numbers seem to be so conveniently rounded 200 and 50
For a country that has over 300 million people this is an abysmal membership number Mr Eric Strickland. Thats why we have had 1 World Champion, not counting Paul Morphy, in over 200 years as a nation! Its a tradgedy that most Americans dont even know how to set up a chess set let alone play. Reality television, hip hop, and electronic gaming systems that simulate war games where kids can blow things up takes up their time.
I love chess. I promote the game as much as I can locally. I often attend the chess club meeting at the local HS, which typically has about 10 kids show up each week, and perhaps 20-25 unique individuals show up at least once during the year. Some come because they think it’s an “intellectual” thing to do, or it will look good on their college applications.
But none of them is a USCF member. Most have multiple interests, and chess is but one of many. Alas, none has enough interest in the game to study it seriously, and many lack the financial resources to play in tournaments. Still, they come to the club meetings for an hour a week and push the pieces around. I guess they’re having fun.
I also help to run a weekly club meeting in my little town, that has probably seen about 30 unique individuals sit down and play at least once during the past year. Only a few of us are USCF members. Most are patzers. At this club everyone is welcome, and everyone plays everyone else. Except for a small handful, most are true “coffee house players”
Who’s to say that the chess playing population should necessarily be much larger than it is? There’s bridge, poker, backgammon, golf, skiing, tennis, cycling, hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, woodcraft, gardening, quilting, knitting, baking, playing a musical instrument, singing in a choir, ebay, doing volunteer work in charitable organizations, and myriad other activities that one can be passionate about.
With so many choices available, chess participation at the tournament level, (or USCF membership), is never going to attract more than a small percentage of the population. Actually, I’m quite pleased that there are many weekend chess tournaments within 50-100 miles of where I live, that draw anywhere from 30 – 200 entrants. It’s a thrill to be in the midst of a hall full of other enthusiasts who all have a passion for the same thing.
-Eric
Check Russias ratio of chess player to U.S. players hahah. They have other things to do also. For every U.S born grandmaster Russia has 500.
A) There are only about 500 GM’s in the whole world.
If there are only 2 US born GM’s, your stat is wrong.
Many (more than half, I would bet) of the world’s 500 GM’s are not Russian, so your stat is definitely wrong.
B) If you knew anything about Russia, you would have heard that the chess scene there is a mere shadow of its former glory days. With the Cold War’s end and the break up of the Soviet Union, government support for chess academies and the development of world class players has dried up. In short, Russia is no longer producing GM’s the way it once did.
C) Having lots of chess GM’s does not appear to have made Russia a prosperous nation.
D) A greater tragedy than the small membership in USCF, is the appalling number of kids who fail to graduate from HS every year. According to news reports yesterday, 1.2 million young people drop out of HS or fail to graduate on time every year. In some large school districts, the drop out rate is 70%. That is truly abysmal.
E) I am not convinced that getting more kids to play chess would make a significant impact on the drop out problem. It might save a few kids here and there, and that would definitely be worth doing, but it is not a panacea.