Top 20 nations for registered players in a four year table

Here the full numbers in the last four years.

	Union	Registered players according World Rugby Year in review
		2018	2017	2016	2015
1	South Africa	635,288	530,393	405,438	358,378
2	England	355,153	359,447	382,154	363,667
3	Australia	271,922	273,095	230,753	241,577
4	France	258,247	272,792	542,242	283,483
5	New Zealand	156,074	155,934	150,727	150,564
6	USA	131,748	124,726	119,682	116,532
7	Fiji	123,900	122,489	122,453	66,124
8	Kenya	122,840	52,261	50,541	19,653
9	Argentina	121,281	109,357	105,151	97,940
10	China	113,686	49,502	35,361	23,500
11	Japan	108,796	109,312	105,693	106,120
12	Wales	107,959	94,000	83,120	75,421
13	Ireland	94,067	103,044	101,922	165,414
14	Italy	77,739	82,243	87,211	77,284
15	Sri Lanka	59,509	57,332	55,282	54,892
16	Madagascar	48,946	42,140	34,393	27,485
17	Scotland	46,050	47,703	49,265	49,305
18	Malaysia	38,022	10,950	10,250	9,350
19	Zimbabwe	32,895	31,328	26,318	24,110
20	Spain	29,081	33,482	34,822	27,510

*Best year in blue, worst year in red.

It's obvious some unions are lying in particular year. Huge rise in poor unions can also mean an improvement in record method.