According to most estimates, there are approximately 1.2 million scuba divers world wide.

66% Male

34% Female

Average age is 29

PADI, the world’s largest scuba certification agency, has barely grown over the last 6 years. In 2007 they had 133,562 members and in 2012 they had 135,710 members, less than a 2% increase.

Between 1997 and 2004, the Divers Alert Network reported an annual fatality rate between 11 and 18 deaths per 100,000 members per year.


Sources:

undercurrent.org/UCnow/dive_magazine/2007/HowManyDivers200705.html
wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_recreational_scuba_divers_in_the_world
padi.com/scuba/uploadedFiles/Scuba_Do_not_use_thi...0WW%20Statistics.pdf
diversalertnetwork.org/default.aspx?a=news&id=904

Comments

Greg - 7/08/2013 3:48 PM You may also be interested in this article about the web usage statistics of DiveBuddy.com: http://www.divebuddy.com/blog/11258/web-usage-statistics-scu...divers-divebuddycom/

Flipper78754 - 6/15/2013 4:51 PM this is very interesting, I am NAUI which I remember when PADI and how fast they grew (I am showing a bit of my age now).

LatitudeAdjustment - 6/08/2013 6:03 AM How many "members" PADI has isn’t a good measure of how many divers there are, the only time I was a member was so I could go on one of thier trips one of my buddies wanted to go on.

Eric_R - 6/06/2013 5:47 PM I think were doing pretty good. http://www.cpsc.gov//Global/Neiss_prod/2011Neissdatahighlights.pdf Greg - 6/06/2013 6:01 PM Those stats make me want to get rid of our trampoline. Eric_R - 6/06/2013 7:21 PM My sister-in-law works for an orthopedic Dr. and that’s the number one business generator for them.

Roadking1 - 6/06/2013 3:46 PM really good to see that average age. last place we went I would have supposed twice that much. must have been the venue. lack of growth is interesting too, may be generational forces influencing that trend. i’m impressed at the death / 100K members, makes you wonder. lets be safe out there.