MADISON, Wis.—As credit unions celebrate International CU Week this week, it’s worth noting that it isn’t just membership in U.S.-based credit unions that has grown significantly over the past decade, but CU membership around the world.
According to statistics compiled by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), CUs closed out 2013 with 207,935,920 members, up more than seven-million people from just one year earlier at year-end 2012.
WOCCU reported total CU membership around the globe at 128,338,297 at year-end 2004, a figure that spiked by almost 20-million people just one-year later. It should be noted, however, that part of the increase is due to more countries’ national CU organizations/federations joining the World Council.
WOCCU reported member statistics from 82 countries in 2004, 97 counties in 2008, and 103 countries at the end of last year. At the same time, the number of credit unions from which it is counting members rose from 41,042 in 2004, to 53,689 in 2008 (before shrinking to 49,220 in 2009), and 56,904 in 2013. Those increases in CU numbers come even as the number of credit unions in the U.S. continues to decline.