The "35 Million Member" Myth

AARP claims to have 35 million members on its website. But S4’s done the real math to show this is an inflated claim.

• AARP’s financial report states it collected $223,767,000 in membership dues in 2004.⁹ The cheapest possible price of a membership for a year is $9.80.¹⁰ That means there are, at best, 22,833,367 dues paying members of AARP.
• According to AARP, in 2004 there were only 300,000 chapter members nationwide.¹¹ That means less than 1% of AARP’s claimed membership is actually active in chapters.
• AARP provides free a membership for the spouses of dues paying members. In the past AARP assumed that half of its members were married and would then use that assumption to add 50% to its membership totals. It has also arbitrarily changed that assumption and in one year-after presuming 60% of its members were married - it fabricated and additional 2 million "new members."¹²