Looking at genealogy professionals -- where do they fit in?

If you talk to a genealogy professional, you would get the idea that they may view the genealogical community somewhat different than those who are not so inclined. I had that conversation recently and and the professional was appalled at some of my views. I think some perspective is needed. Let's look at some numbers.

• 71,006,318 -- The number of members MyHeritage.com has at the date of this post, around the world.
• 16,208 -- The number of attorneys resident and active in the State of Arizona according to the American Bar Association.
• 1,268,011 -- The total number of attorneys in the United States according to the American Bar Association.
• 34 -- The number of Professional Genealogists in Arizona who are members of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
• 300 -- Approximate number of Certified Genealogists in the United States from the Board for Certification of Genealogists. 
• 7,840 -- The number of attorneys in Utah according to the American Bar Association. 
• 125 -- Approximate number of Certified Genealogists in the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists.

Note that some of the statistics about genealogical professionals are not readily available. If you have numbers that show that these are not accurate, please share them. 

There are some things in this world that are driven by numbers. Visibility and influence are two such things. In the United States today, you probably know an attorney personally. How many certified or accredited genealogists to you know? 

So what? What does this show other than the fact that there are probably a lot more attorneys than we actually need? The professional genealogical community is very small on both an absolute and relative scale. What is important to note is the huge number of people who have at least enough interest in their family to have a family tree on MyHeritage.com. 

My first conclusion from these numbers is that there is generally not a perceived need for genealogical professionals who are certified, accredited or otherwise consider themselves to be professionals. Why is that the case? 

It is very likely that this relatively small group of "professionals" have a rather large influence on the larger group of adherents. 

I think a much more indicative number of "professional level" genealogists would be shown by the number of members of all of the genealogical societies throughout the United States. 

However, they are viewed, we need to address the issue of professional level certification or accreditation as part of the overall issue of genealogical competence.