According to the certifications added by scuba divers on DiveBuddy.com, the following list indicates the percentage market share by each certification agency (numbers are rounded up):

PADI: 56%
NAUI: 10%
SSI: 10%
SDI: 4%
DAN: 3%
TDI: 3%
IANTD: 2%
Red Cross: 2%
YMCA: 1%
CMAS/WUF: 1%
NASE: 1%
NSS/CDS: 1%
IDEA: 1%
Other: 8%

Comments

austin-e - 12/11/2014 10:28 AM Can you please report how many responses you received? Greg - 12/12/2014 6:40 AM This data is taken from the 20,000+ members of DiveBuddy.com.

USACMASDiver - 7/23/2014 9:59 AM Those numbers are for the USA. Greg, why would someone leave French Polynesia to come to the USA to learn how to dive? Que? The best reefs, the largest reefs, the most reefs, are not in USA territorial waters. There is good diving in USA territorial waters. However, there are probably 100 national associations in the CMAS family. There are even 4 separate CMAS associations just in Japan alone, and they have about 30% of the market. Just about every country in the world has at least one CMAS associated organization, and many of them have government support. Then there is the CMAS Sport Committee and the CMAS Scientific Committee. CMAS has more irons in the fire than just "scuba." I think there are about 7 recognized sports and the Olympic Committee has a CMAS desk. Remember when nobody, but nobody played soccer in the USA and many people thought, "That sport will never make it to America?" A lot of folks even thought and perhaps some still do that soccer was and is "un-American." Europe was far, far away. Then Fiat bought 68% of Chrysler and Mares bought SSI in 2014. By the time PADI reads the map and decides to formally get into competitive underwater spear gun target shooting and teach it as a class, and by the time PADI figures out that underwater wrestling is popular in Russia and bucket loads of other European countries, and when they look at the numbers and see that underwater hocky is popular in just about every European country that has a pool, PADI will see the numbers and come knocking on the door for the rule book, but it will find that the chairman is a CMAS official with government support. The USA today with underwater sport is where soccer was in the States in the 1950’s. In the global ocean, CMAS isn’t 1%. Yet, you are correct, CMAS has 1% of the market in the USA, which includes the coral reefs in Utah, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas.

TheGoodKid - 5/06/2014 8:54 AM What’s your sample size, how many divers have you taken into account? Greg - 5/06/2014 9:20 AM The 20,000+ registered DiveBuddy members.

SunsetHouse - 7/29/2013 7:16 AM So one person could have entered multiple agencies as their answer? Greg - 7/29/2013 7:55 AM Yes, I counted uniquely per person per agency. So a person with 5 PADI certs, 2 DAN certs and 1 NAUI cert would count as 1 PADI, 1 DAN and 1 NAUI.

SunsetHouse - 7/29/2013 6:39 AM Or the DAN 3% is misleading as DAN does not do entry level certification. Greg - 7/29/2013 6:42 AM Numbers count all certs, not just entry level certs.

Eric_R - 7/25/2013 1:02 PM An extra 3 percent in there must be some rounding.:) Greg - 7/26/2013 11:42 AM Yes, rounding throws the numbers off a bit.