dalin
11-20-2009, 01:30 PM
Membership Demographics
To offer some general, informal observations about the nature of NA membership and the effectiveness of the program, the following observations are believed to be reasonably accurate.
The socioeconomic strata represented by the NA membership vary from country to country. Usually, members of one particular social or economic class start and sustain most developing NA communities worldwide, but as their fellowship development activities become more effective, the membership becomes more broadly representative of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
All ethnic and religious backgrounds are represented among NA members. Once a developing NA community reaches a certain level of maturity, its membership generally reflects the diversity or homogeneity of the background culture.
Membership in Narcotics Anonymous is voluntary; no attendance records are kept either for NA's own purposes or for others. Because of this, it is sometimes difficult to provide interested parties with comprehensive information about NA membership. There are, however, some objective measures that can be shared based on data obtained primarily from members attending one of our world conventions. The diversity of our membership, especially ethnic background, seems to be representative of the geographic location of the survey. The following demographic information was gathered from a survey completed by approximately 13,500 NA members. The survey was made available at the 2007 World Convention of NA in San Antonio, Texas, in our international journal, The NA Way Magazine, and on our website.
Gender: 56% male, 44% female.
Age: 2% 20 years old and under, 14% 21-30 years old, 23% 31-40 years old, 37% 41-50 years old, 22% 51-60 years old, 3% over 60 years old and 1% did not answer.
Ethnicity: 73% Caucasian, 14% African-American, 7% Hispanic, and 7% other.
Employment status: 69% employed full-time, 9% employed part-time, 7% unemployed, 6% retired, 4% homemakers, and 5% students.
Continuous abstinence/recovery: ranged from less than one year up to 40 years, with a mean average of 9.1 years.
To offer some general, informal observations about the nature of NA membership and the effectiveness of the program, the following observations are believed to be reasonably accurate.
The socioeconomic strata represented by the NA membership vary from country to country. Usually, members of one particular social or economic class start and sustain most developing NA communities worldwide, but as their fellowship development activities become more effective, the membership becomes more broadly representative of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
All ethnic and religious backgrounds are represented among NA members. Once a developing NA community reaches a certain level of maturity, its membership generally reflects the diversity or homogeneity of the background culture.
Membership in Narcotics Anonymous is voluntary; no attendance records are kept either for NA's own purposes or for others. Because of this, it is sometimes difficult to provide interested parties with comprehensive information about NA membership. There are, however, some objective measures that can be shared based on data obtained primarily from members attending one of our world conventions. The diversity of our membership, especially ethnic background, seems to be representative of the geographic location of the survey. The following demographic information was gathered from a survey completed by approximately 13,500 NA members. The survey was made available at the 2007 World Convention of NA in San Antonio, Texas, in our international journal, The NA Way Magazine, and on our website.
Gender: 56% male, 44% female.
Age: 2% 20 years old and under, 14% 21-30 years old, 23% 31-40 years old, 37% 41-50 years old, 22% 51-60 years old, 3% over 60 years old and 1% did not answer.
Ethnicity: 73% Caucasian, 14% African-American, 7% Hispanic, and 7% other.
Employment status: 69% employed full-time, 9% employed part-time, 7% unemployed, 6% retired, 4% homemakers, and 5% students.
Continuous abstinence/recovery: ranged from less than one year up to 40 years, with a mean average of 9.1 years.