Number of Certified Divers in the World?

[lmorin]

The question is fundamentally unanswerable. Theoretically, the number of folks certified yearly can be known by obtaining all certification info from all certifying agencies including the Navy, Coast Guard etc. The number of folks who become uncertified yearly cannot. They are dead. So, that number cannot be subtracted from the first number, even if the first number were known. To obtain the total number of people currently certified (active divers or not is a separate question), one would have to extrapolate from the yearly number to a total that accumulates yearly. Guesstimates are possible, of course, but the error is likely to be quite high.

 

[Tigerman]

All I know is that im nr 0608NO06726..
Whatever the hell those letters are doing to the number Im not so sure about other than the obvious fact that they indicate what Country I was certified in

I also notice that both my instructors has numbers in the low 500 thousands which makes me think there might be about half a million people certified at their level (at the time they got their OWSI/MSDT)?

Edit: And thats only one agency alone..

 

[waxawa3074]

Well from the PADI website, there are 20 million PADI-certified divers as of September 4 of this year. All you need to do now is ask the other agencies what their numbers are. Keep in mind some people will have certified with multiple agencies. I guess this'll turn into another PADI vs others battle.

Alexandra Swanson became the recipient of the 20 millionth PADI certification when she earned her PADI Open Water Diver course certification on 4 September 2011.

www.padi.com/scuba/news-events/default.aspx?id=17793

 

[Tigerman]

Well, the problem is we just know that they have certified 20 million divers and we dont know how many of them has passed away, but my bet is "a few million" since theyve been going since 1966..

 

[Diver0001]

Well from the PADI website, there are 20 million PADI-certified divers as of September 4 of this year.

I don't believe this is correct. I have OW, AOW, Rescue, DM, OWSI, MSDT, and a bunch of specialties. That makes me maybe 8 or 10 "divers" in their system. PADI counts certifications, not divers.

Assuming that the "average" diver has OW and AOW and one specialty then the number of total divers certified by PADI can't be any higher than 7 million.

From the stats I would say PADI controls about 75% of the market so the total number from all agencies should be about 8.75 million.

About 0.9% of the population of the world dies every year and I would assume that scuba divers are "average" in this way.

That would mean that about 36% of the divers who have been certified over the years have died, which brings that number down to about 5.6 million.

Moreover, I would assume that about 1 in 3 are actually active in one form or another (based on BSAC numbers) so divide 5.6 by 3 and the number of active divers falls just under the 2 million mark, which is in line with what PADI estimates and also corresponds to a number mentioned by "Undercurrent" in 2007.

R..

 

[waxawa3074]

...

I don't believe any of that is correct. 47.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[K2panman]

I don't believe any of that is correct. 47.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

well stated, awndray.

I'm going to run with the "just under 2 million" estimate. That sounds good to me.

So then, how many new divers get certified each year? Really new - not the PADI card collectors. Doesn't PADI keep track of their diver's - counting each time they give out a "boat diver" or "drift diver" or "coral reef conservation diver" C card - this sounds like they should be smarter at counting than that.

 

[Diver0001]

this sounds like they should be smarter at counting than that.

On the whole the number of active divers and the number of dives being made per year are the most interesting for statistics. I'm sure that agencies know exactly how many new divers we're training per year but in itself, that number is pretty meaningless.

In some way I can understand them keeping it close to the chest. With real numbers to work from, some people will dream up convincing fiction that will make Dan Brown look like an amateur.

R..

 

[DiveNav]

I don't believe any of that is correct. 47.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Wasn't that 47.34? Wasn't it?

 

[DevonDiver]

Well from the PADI website, there are 20 million PADI-certified divers as of September 4 of this year.

PADI are celebrating issuing 20 million certifications. Those are certifications at all levels; including AOW, specialities etc. The number of PADI certified divers will be considerably lower - but still a very high number.

PADI have a very high market share (I think somewhere around 90%)... so the total number by other agencies isn't going to add a huge figure to the total.