APA has 54 divisions that represent topical areas or subdisciplines of psychology. APA members, and in some cases also nonmembers, can apply to join one or more divisions.
Over the last 20 years, APA division membership has been declining.1 In 1993, approximately 58 percent of APA members were also members of at least one division. By 2014, divisional membership had dropped to 43 percent. However, after reaching its lowest point in 2011 (37 percent), division membership has grown 6 percent in the last three years.
Between 1998 and 2014, five divisions attracted more members.2 The largest percent increase in membership occurred for Div. 53 (Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology), whose membership rose 114 percent between 1998 and 2014.
![American Psychological Association (2015). Division Membership Counts for 1998, 2008 and 2014, and Percentage Change from 1998–2014 [Unpublished special analysis]. Washington, DC: Author](/images/2015-04-datapoint2_tcm7-183890_w1024_n.jpg)
— Peggy Christidis, PhD, Marlene Wicherski, and Karen Stamm, PhD
1 American Psychological Association (selected years). APA Member and Division Profiles. Retrieved from www.apa.org/workforce/publications .
2 American Psychological Association (2015). Division Membership Counts for 1998, 2008 and 2014, and Percentage Change from 1998–2014 [Unpublished special analysis]. Washington, DC: Author