We are continually amazed at how RePEc has grown since its inception in 1997 (with a precursor stating in 1992). One example is that we now have 30,000 authors registered with the RePEc Author Service, averaging 23 listed works each. If we can call this a community, it is the largest in the profession, as it outnumbers the membership of the largest societies in Economics combined. It is also remarkable, that only 1% of the accounts have expired email addresses, showing that authors maintain their entries. This does not include the small but unfortunately growing number of deceased authors.
This is also a good opportunity to mention that the RePEc Author Service is now hosted by the Economic Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. We are currently working on a few innovations that will make the service more useful to the profession as well as facilitate its maintenance.
Posted by Christian Zimmermann 
The RePEc Blog 