Organization Statistics

Statistics about USHPA membership, instructors, and more

Statistics on USHPA members, instructors, and more are available below. These will be added to and updated periodically.

Member Statistics

 

USHPA's overall membership is on the rise as a result of the increasing participation in paragliding. As the hang glider pilot population ages (see chart below), USHPA's hang glider numbers have been steadily declining. USHPA is committed to supporting hang gliding and has been collaborating with a hang gliding work group focused specifically on helping the sport grow.

 

USHPA Membership - June 2009-July 2020

Tracking membership with no ratings (including Contributing Members) began in 2010. Prior to 2010, members with no ratings or ratings in both wing types were tracked in the Both category. Recreation RRG was established in March 2016 and began issuing policies in June 2016. For member counts by month and year, please click here.

 

USHPA Membership - 1972-2020

 

USHPA Active Member Age - July 2020

 

Instructor Statistics

 

Average Annual Basic/Advanced Instructors - August 2012-July 2019

 

Average Annual Tandem Instructors - August 2012-July 2019

 

Instructors Total - April 2011-July 2020

For instructor counts by month and year, please click here.

 

PASA Schools Statistics

 

Student and Rating Data - May 2018-April 2019

PASA School Type Unique Solo Students # of Students Issued Ratings % of Students Issued Ratings % of All Ratings Issued by USHPA
Paragliding 2152 635 29.51% 56.29%
Hang Gliding 6295 151 2.4% 13.39%
Total 8447 786 9.31% 69.68%

While hang gliding has nearly three times as many unique participants in solo training, the percentage of hang gliding ratings issued is under 3% compared to almost 30% for paragliding. Hang gliding has a higher participation rate, but a much lower conversion to ratings issued. PASA-certified schools issued nearly 70% of all USHPA ratings during this time period.