Thread: How many of us are there?

I doubt machine suppliers would be of much use because there are lots of folks (like me) that own a lathe and turn occasionally but are not what I would call a wood turners.
I'd call someone a wood turner only if it is their major WW interest and they own their own lathe.

Of the 75+ members of the mens shed I sometimes attend there three members I would call Turners, someone who has their own lathe and spends a lot of time at home and at the shed wood turning in preference to other woody activities. There are around a dozen other members that would use a lathe about once a month or so and some even have their own lathes at home but wood turning is not their major wood interest.

It is a difficult one to answer for sure. It never ceases to amaze me though how many stats seem to be collected on the strangest subjects - not that it means there is any accuracy to them, but you never know, maybe some uni student somewhere has done some research on the health benefits of woodturning and come up with some numbers!!!?? 😀

The issue with the "stats" that are available is the data that the Aus Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collects is the data that is inputted when people nominate when they register their business and forces everyone into major "industry groups" the groups are quite vague eg "Furniture manufacturing", wood product manufacturing etc. and wouldn't provide anywhere near the amount of information to drill into sub categories of a particular industry in this case wood turning.

Using Bob's definition of what defines a "wood turner" it would be next to impossible to determine using this data the number of wood turners out there. At best you'll probably be able to determine how many woodworking business are out there and that are based out of a residential location. Similarly using the number of machinery sales is not really going to be accurate either as i'm sure there are many users out there with multiple lathes etc.

In regards to how other stats that are collected, you'll be surprised at how some of the figures are derived and the absurdness of the method eg, if I was tasked to quantify the number of lathe users out there one approach may be to attend the local wood work show survey a bunch of people, work out a percentage based on survey results and multiply out by the number of people in Perth etc to quantify the "potential" number of turners out there. Obviously this is a very simplistic method of working a figure and most likely highly inaccurate, but in the world of stats provided you can justify why you've done what you've done without any other evidence the figure is as good as it gets.

It's 4,178

Yep I agree Tonzeyd. So I'm going to have a go as I figure I can do as good a job as any statistician! The AAW has over 15,000 members in the US and is affiliated with 350 Clubs/Associations worldwide. So if there are say 500 members on average in each Club that's an additional 175,000 members. Since its unlikely that the AAW is affiliated with all Clubs around the world there has to be another 350 that haven't been accounted for, so that's another 175,000 turners. However, only a percentage (30%) of woodturners are also Club/Forum members so the actual number of turners can be calculated at 175,000 + 175,000 + 15,000 (365,000) / .7 = 521,428.
Then there are the Men's Shed's and their equivalents around the world where as Bob advised, there are on average 12 members in each that are casual woodturners. Extrapolating from the base of 1000 men shed's in Australia there are 10,000 such shed's worldwide which gives us another 120,000 casual turners. So we can determine with a degree of statistical accuracy that there are 641,428 people in the world involved in woodturning.
Anyone out there willing or able to challenge this number?

Originally Posted by george mavridis

It's 4,178

That's just in on the northern seaboard (-:

641, 428 turners eh

Well given there are about 600,000 villages in china and about the same number in india and on average each village has one turner (a number I just made up)- some will have none but some will have many more than one, then you'd have to multiply your number by three.

Originally Posted by BobL

641, 428 turners eh

Well given there are about 600,000 villages in china and about the same number in india and on average each village has one turner (a number I just made up)- some will have none but some will have many more than one, then you'd have to multiply your number by three.

So we are up to 1,924,284!

Nothing unique about this hobby then !!!!

Originally Posted by Phily

Then there are the Men's Shed's and their equivalents around the world where as Bob advised, there are on average 12 members in each that are casual woodturners. Extrapolating from the base of 1000 men shed's in Australia there are 10,000 such shed's worldwide which gives us another 120,000 casual turners.
Anyone out there willing or able to challenge this number?

Consider yourself challenged.

Bob's figure of 12 relates only to his shed. The shed that I used to volunteer at only had 2 turners (including myself) so using his figure is to small a sample.

Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Consider yourself challenged.

Bob's figure of 12 relates only to his shed. The shed that I used to volunteer at only had 2 turners (including myself) so using his figure is to small a sample.

Peter.

Yes, but what if there are shed's with more than Bob's??
and I did say a "degree" of statistical accuracy. Its quite possibly a very very small degree!!

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Consider yourself challenged.
Bob's figure of 12 relates only to his shed. The shed that I used to volunteer at only had 2 turners (including myself) so using his figure is to small a sample.
Peter.

I agree that there are not 12 wood turners at the shed I attend. I wouldn't even call most of them casual wood turners - they are not that interested in turning they just turning when they need to for a specific reason. A serious wood turner will turn just to make shavings.

I don't think of someone that uses a lathe on average once a month as a wood turner any more than I would think of someone that uses a chainsaw 12 times a year as a tree lopper, or cuts up a couple of trailer loads of fire wood as a fire wood provider.

A wood turner is someone for which wood turning is one of their primary hobbies or occupations. I don't think even just owning a lathe classifies you as a turner. I've seem too many lathes covered in dust not having be used for years (even decades) to confirm that.

I would imagine, there aren't a lot of professional wood turners, well compared to cabinetmakers, even then, you could debate that as the most of them are just making flat pack boxes for kitchens now.

like Bob pointed out, so many dusty lathes out there. so from machinery sales, you couldn't come to a correct number

A lot of people buy one as a hobby, as it isn't hard to pick up the basic skills to do a basic job, (no disrespect, its the same with hobby woodworkers) and then only really use you when they need to make something, and quality is in the eye of the beholder.

And thats what it about, having a go and improving your skillset.

the serious guys, will make all kinds of stuff and find every reason to be fine tuning their skills, my hats off to you passion.

i don't think you will ever find out a semi correct number as everyone seems to get bundled into a woodworker.

I agree that it isn't an easy task to define who a woodturner is and the number of them. Just a fun exercise. But I am devistated that by Bob's reckoning I have to remove "Arborist" from my resume 😩😩😩

Not enough!!