Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship that was founded on June 10, 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. Soon after, they published a book appropriately titled, "Alcoholics Anonymous" in 1939. After that, the fellowship grew exponentially. Many thousands of people began using their program to get sober. The fellowship grew to just over 2.4 million souls in 1992. After that, for a reason known only to God, the fellowship began to decline. It fell from 2.49 million members in 1992 to 1.73 million members in 1995. Then the fellowship rebounded to 2.22 million members in 2001. Declining again and finally leveling off at approximately 2 million members. As of 2018, the official membership count was 2,130,419 souls.
AA Membership — Key Data Points
| Year | Members |
|---|---|
| 1939 | ~100 |
| 1992 | 2,490,000 (peak) |
| 1995 | 1,730,000 |
| 2001 | 2,220,000 |
| 2018 | 2,130,419 |
Source: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
You might think it would be worthwhile to look at what happened in 1992 to find out what happened. I have not found this to be the case. The internet as we know it today went live that year. But the growth was slow at first. Not nearly enough to have such an effect on the AA fellowship. The correlation is clear. The causation is not.