The number of organizations (Moderate-Control or High-Control) counted as active in the United States in each year. An organization is counted from its founding year until its recorded year of dissolution, if any.
An organization counts toward a year if it was founded on or before that year and has no recorded year of dissolution at or before it. The series begins in 1900; a tail of organizations was founded as far back as 1540. Because few organizations in the dataset have a recorded dissolution year, the upward trend mainly reflects the accumulating population of still-active organizations rather than the rate of new formation. The dashed line tracks the cumulative count of organizations that have gone defunct, read against the right-hand axis (a much smaller scale than the active population). Figures update as new assessments are completed.