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Benchmarks & Formula
The sector benchmarks, the formula, and how to work out — and improve — your own membership retention rate.
The Short Answer
The median renewal rate across membership organisations is 84%, according to the 2025 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report from Marketing General Inc. Sit above it and you are ahead of the sector; sit materially below it and there is retention revenue on the table.
The big exception is new members. First-year renewal is just 74% — new members churn markedly faster than the established base — so the first year deserves its own benchmark and its own attention.
84%
Median renewal rate across membership organisations (MGI 2025)
74%
Median first-year renewal rate — new members churn fastest (MGI 2025)
5–25×
Cost of acquiring a member vs retaining one (Harvard Business Review)
The Formula
Suppose you started the year with 1,000 members, recruited 200 new ones, and ended with 1,050. Your retention rate is ((1,050 − 200) ÷ 1,000) × 100 = 85%. Stripping out the new joiners is what makes this a true measure of how well you kept the members you already had.
Prefer to skip the arithmetic? The free membership retention calculator works it out and shows the revenue impact, and the customer retention calculator does the same for subscription businesses and clubs.
Averages & Variation
“Average” and “median” retention rates are not the same. The median renewal rate is 84%, but the average sits a little lower — around 79–80% — because a tail of weaker performers drags the mean down. When you read a benchmark, check which one it is.
Rates also vary by type of organisation. Trade associations, professional bodies, membership charities and consumer subscriptions all retain differently, so the most useful comparison is against bodies like yours rather than a single sector-wide figure. Whatever your starting point, remember these are usually renewal figures; your all-cause retention rate will typically run a little lower.
Questions
A good membership retention rate is at or above the sector median renewal rate of 84%, reported in the 2025 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report by Marketing General Inc. First-year members are the exception — they renew at a median of just 74%, so anything above that for new members is healthy. Below 74% among first-year members usually signals an onboarding or value problem worth fixing.
The median renewal rate across membership organisations is 84%, while the average tends to sit a little lower (around 79–80%) because weaker performers drag the mean down. Rates vary by sector: trade associations, professional bodies and consumer memberships all behave differently, so compare against organisations like yours rather than a single headline number.
Membership retention rate = ((Members at End − New Members During Period) ÷ Members at Start) × 100. For example, starting with 1,000 members, gaining 200, and ending with 1,050 gives ((1,050 − 200) ÷ 1,000) × 100 = 85%. This strips out new joiners so you measure how well you kept the members you already had.
Renewal rate is the percentage of members who renewed when they were eligible to. Retention rate is broader — it accounts for all losses across the year, including mid-term cancellations, lapsed payments and resignations. Renewal rate is usually the higher of the two, so the widely cited 84% median (a renewal figure) is not directly comparable to an all-cause retention rate.
Focus first on the first 90 days, because first-year members churn fastest. Strengthen onboarding, communicate underused benefits, start renewal conversations early, run win-back campaigns for lapsed members, and use a member retention survey to find out why people leave. Because keeping a member costs a fraction of acquiring one, small retention gains compound into significant revenue.
A good membership retention rate is 84% or higher (MGI 2025).
Book a free consultation with our membership retention specialists to close the gap and keep more members.
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