Posted by Jack on March 20, 2004 at 21:53:31:
In Reply to: Diver stats posted by Audrey on March 20, 2004 at 15:25:37:
Try the National Recreation Survey (marine) at http://marineeconomics.noaa.gov/NSRE/welcome.html
Since this is a nationwide survey, the results should be generalizable to the entire U.S. population. California recently released a similar survey, but I cant get that website until Monday. (As I recall, the California survey indicated about 6 or 8 percent of the population dived and had all kinds of demographic info, but it only covers the golden states.
Certification agencies are generally lousy sources of info, as no one aggregates the data for the entire industry. Besides, with a better than 50 percent drop out rate it would be unreliable. If you have any connection to any of the dive magazines, their demographic info would contain what you are looking for. Skin Diver had great stuff for its marketing but it went belly up.