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CUNA Study Reveals Demographic Profile of Credit Union Members, Non-Members

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The results of Credit Union National Association‘s member and nonmember survey reflect growing diversity. CUNA published this article on the trend as credit unions seek to meet their members’ increasingly diverse needs, opportunities and challenges:

As credit unions approach the 100 million member milestone, the diversity of credit union membership has never shined brighter. The Credit Union National Association’s 2014 National Member and Nonmember survey reveals exactly how diverse that membership is.

“Our national research helps credit unions discover the demographic segments that represent their greatest opportunities and challenges,” Jon Haller, CUNA’s director of Corporate and Market Research told Credit Union Magazine in a recent article.

Overall, credit union members are an attractive consumer market. Four of 10 have college degrees, compared with 24 percent of nonmembers. More than half (54 percent) of members are employed full time, while only 39 percent of nonmembers have full-time jobs. And 76 percent of members are homeowners, compared with 52 percent of nonmembers.

Members have a wide variety of financial needs, and those needs are constantly changing and evolving throughout their lives as they buy cars or homes, pay for college tuition, or plan for retirement.

For most members, their credit union is just one option for meeting their financial needs. CUNA’s survey shows that 86 percent of members are also bank customers, while 65 percent of nonmembers use banks.

The challenge is to increase loyalty levels among your members so they’re more likely to turn to your credit union the next time they need a financial product or service.

Total credit union membership approached 97.5 million at the end of 2013, according to CUNA. That represents a 2.5 percent annual growth rate for 2013, compared with 2.1 percent for 2012. These are net growth rates, notes Haller, which take into account new members as well as those who leave.

“Those two years represent the highest back-to-back annual membership growth rates in more than a decade,” Haller says. “The 2013 growth continues the small but steady rise we’ve seen each year since 2010, when the growth rate was only 0.7 percent.”

Click here to read the full article published by Credit Union Magazine.

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