TexasCHLforum.com

FINALLY!!! The reports have been published! But only for the calendar year ending 12/31/2009. I couldn't find the one for the fiscal year ending 08/31/09.

Bottom line: 404,795 CHL licenses & instructor licenses in the State of Texas at the end of December, 2009.

This compares to 316,085 active CHL licenses & instructors licenses in the State at the end of December, 2008.

This really surprises me. The growth is rather anemic to what I was expecting, noting the long delays of having licenses issued last year.

Anyway, as disappointing as the numbers are, here's the link:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administra ... tscy09.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(edited to add the words "& instructor licenses" in the Dec.2009 numbers) The 404,795 includes instructor licenses. Sorry for omitting that earlier.

A little further digging brings out some more facts:

138,768 new licenses were issued. The largest concentrations of new licensees issued are in the following counties(followed by percent of total new licenses issued statewide):

Bexar - 5.05%
Brazoria - 2.19%
Collin - 2.93%
Dallas - 5.89%
Denton - 2.70%
El Paso - 1.30%
Fort Bend - 2.69%
Galveston - 2.18%
Harris - 17.27%
Jefferson - 1.20%
Lubbock - 1.18%
Mc Lennan 1.19%
Montgomery - 3.28%
Nueces - 1.33%
Tarrant - 7.44%
Travis - 2.24%
Williamson - 1.48%

Yeah, I was looking at that, yesterday. Doesn't seem like as many as I had thought.?

There were 1,600 + new Instructor cetificates issued. I wonder if, since most classes are held on weekends, that has anything to do with the numbers? Are the classes all booked up?

I did find it interesting that Tarrant County is second, only to Harris, in the number of licenses issued.

Ol Zeke wrote: I did find it interesting that Tarrant County is second, only to Harris, in the number of licenses issued.

Me as well Zeke.

I'd say a 33% increase in CHLs is a big move in the right direction. That seems to coincide with the 10,000-12,000 licenses that DPS was reportedly averaging each month.

KFP wrote:I'd say a 33% increase in CHLs is a big move in the right direction. That seems to coincide with the 10,000-12,000 licenses that DPS was reportedly averaging each month.

That is true.

There you go, gettin' all logical on us.

joe817 wrote:A little further digging brings out some more facts:

138,768 new licenses were issued. The largest concentrations of new licensees issued are in the following counties(followed by percent of total new licenses issued statewide):

If 138,768 new licenses were issued, that seems to mean 50,000 were not renewed.

316,085 to 404,795 is only 88,710 increase.

So let's run some numbers ...

• 24,782,302 -- Texas population estimate, 2009
  27.6% -- Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2008
  (source: US Census Bureau)

That means about 17,942,386 over 18. 17,942,386 adults divided by 404,795 CHL holders means...

About 1 in 44 adult Texans has a CHL.

(It's actually a little higher, of course, since you have to be 21 to get a CHL.)

joe817 wrote:138,768 new licenses were issued.

That isn't anemic at all! In fact, I'm duly impressed. Not counting instructors, here are total numbers of licenses issued in recent fiscal years:

2008: 73,090
2007: 90,867
2006: 67,843

For 2002 through 2005, I have only a summary, end-of-year license count, not number issued, but you can get an idea of the (essentially flat) trend:

2005: 248,874
2004: 239,940
2003: 239,863
2002: 224,172

So I'd say last year was a big boost to our numbers, I assume the biggest single-year boost this decade.

Interesting the disparity of numbers between Dallas & Tarrant counties. I wonder is it a liberal/conservative thing or is it that there are just that many more people in Dallas that know there is no way they would qualify for a license.

I would be interested to know if the MPA impacted the numbers.

joe817 wrote:

Ol Zeke wrote: I did find it interesting that Tarrant County is second, only to Harris, in the number of licenses issued.

Me as well Zeke.

I'm actually no surprised about that one. Tarrant County is a pretty conservative area overall. The one that surprises me is that Harris County is 17.27% of the total. Given the stuff you hear about Houston PD and past Houston Mayor viz-a-viz CHL, one wonders why there is such a large spike in numbers in that one county.

Maybe some of you Harris County folks could weigh in with a theory?

I'm a statistic! (Brazoria)

tornado wrote:So let's run some numbers ...

• 24,782,302 -- Texas population estimate, 2009
  27.6% -- Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2008
  (source: US Census Bureau)

That means about 17,942,386 over 18. 17,942,386 adults divided by 404,795 CHL holders means...

About 1 in 44 adult Texans has a CHL.

That's a pretty scary thought ... if you're a BG!

CrimsonSoul wrote:I'm a statistic! (Brazoria)

I'm jealous. I always wanted to be one of those.