Hi all

I'm after a few basic statistics on British caving to compare with the results from the questionnaire so many of you kindly answered and judge how representative the sample was.

Just wondering if anyone is aware of where i might get hold of;

the numbers of 'cavers' in Britain?
the percentage male/female cavers?
the rough age spread of British cavers?
Possibly the most visited caving regions?

I have tried hunting through the BCA page but nothing was immediately obvious, though I may have missed something. Does anyone know of any other sources of this data

Thanks in advance

Who are you?
Why are you looking?
An introduction would be nice...

This is an old chestnut. I predict you won't get a definitive answer.

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=23783.msg298447#msg298447

A previous topic started by Cave Access Research, who happened to be at the South Wales Hut all weekend. You could go and take a look at the Sign in Sheets and narrow it down...

Also happened to get through to dry passage beyond Elm Hole on Saturday?

Number of 'cavers' very much depends on how you define 'caver'.

See here for my thoughts - https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=23750.0

Probably no one has looked at the percentage of female cavers.  Suggest you contact Wendy Williams, the admin officer at BCA as the membership figures could give you useful information.  My guess is that we are talking somewhere around 20%.  It is definitely on a welcome upward curve from a few decades ago.

I produced some stats for BCA on the age of their membership.  That would give an indication but only if you discount the whole instructed sector participation in caving.  See my report attached to the BCA June 2017 meeting, page 15 - http://british-caving.org.uk/wiki3/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=about:documents:council_meetings:council_minutes_2017-06-11.pdf

Don't know how you would get comparable information on the most visited caving region.  I'd guess the Dales as the biggest but Peak has larger urban conurbations nearby and both Mendip and S Wales are popular.  When I did some visitor stats for caving in the Dales we got to 20,000 over night stays in the six clubs huts and other cavers haunts then there are day visitors and instructed groups etc etc. 

Tough mission

BradW said:

This is an old chestnut. I predict you won't get a definitive answer.

Click to expand...

And C.A.R. may have been named in the middle of a report for a tonne of Ukcaving prizes last year.

Regarding the ratio of Male:Female cavers, it might be a bit higher than Badlad suggests. When I was Cambrian Caving Council secretary I had to compile statistics on the clubs affiliated to CCC for the Sport Wales grant. The figures I supplied for 2017 are below:

Male Adult Cavers:  1738
Female Adult Cavers: 533
Male Child Cavers:      30
Female Child Cavers:    12

That works out at about 23% Female cavers for a sample of ~53 clubs.

Dave