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It is estimated that there are now between 18,000 and 19,000 rental operations in the United States and Canada — as many as 18,000 of them in the United States — according to the latest industry data generated by the American Rental Association as part of an industry profile.
The numbers are derived from A.R.A. membership lists, including branch locations, and the list of A.R.A. “prospective members,” “prospective branches” and what A.R.A. officials called “a conservative portion” of the “prospective member inactive” list — those who were once members or were in an SIC code list that had not had any activity with A.R.A. for three years. The A.R.A. pointed out that the “prospective member inactive” list is actually 4,496, so the arbitrary number used for the tally — 1,500 — is very conservative.*
“Prospective branches” are branch locations that appear on A.R.A. lists but have lapsed, likely as a result of acquisitions and changes of ownership.
Here is how A.R.A. calculated the estimated total:
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4,297 Members
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2,329 Branches
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9,737 Prospective member list
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447 Prospective branch list
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1,500 Prospective inactive
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(but see note above*)
18,188 Total, from which the A.R.A.’s overseas members must be subtracted to get the North American total.
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