---
title: "Data Nugget: Why Don’t Nonmembers Join?"
id: "28670"
type: "post"
slug: "data-nugget-why-dont-nonmembers-join"
published_at: "2015-06-01T07:50:26+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-11-09T17:53:09+00:00"
url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/06/01/data-nugget-why-dont-nonmembers-join/"
markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2015/06/01/data-nugget-why-dont-nonmembers-join.md"
excerpt: "A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. survey uncovers why nonmembers aren’t joining associations."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Membership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "AssociationsNow"
  - "labor organization"
  - "Membership"
  - "nonmembers"
taxonomy_content_format:
  - "Article"
taxonomy_role:
  - "Association CEO / Executive Director"
  - "Executive Team"
  - "VP"
taxonomy_persona:
  - "Association Professionals"
---

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 » Data Nugget: Why Don’t Nonmembers Join?

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., journal-publishing partner to more than 900 global scholarly societies, conducted a survey in 2014 to uncover why people do or don’t join such organizations. When asked why they don’t join, nonmembers cited the following four reasons most frequently. The study focused on STEM fields, but it’s not a stretch to imagine that these barriers to joining associations exist in other fields, too.

1. ​High Cost (24 percent)
2. ​Never Been Invited To Join (15 percent)
3. (tie) ​Don’t Know What’s Available (12 percent) ​Never Occurred To Me To Join (12 percent)

Source: “[Membership Matters: Lessons From Members and Non-Members (opens in a new tab)](http://exchanges.wiley.com/societies/membershipsurvey2014)
,” Wiley, March 2015

(Oko_SwanOmurphy/ThinkStock)

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Tags: [#labor organization](https://associationsnow.com/tag/labor-organization/)
 [#Membership](https://associationsnow.com/tag/membership/)
 [#nonmembers](https://associationsnow.com/tag/nonmembers/)

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