Statistics - bend it anyway you like!

4.2k · August 23, 2016

Some Earthcache stats as of August 22 2016

EARTHCACHE STATS - see also the seperate thread

As of 22 Aug 2016

ECs by Prov

Eastern Cape 56

Free State 6

Gauteng 47

Kwazulu Natal 62

Limpopo 19

Mpumalanga 44

North West 9

Northern Cape 20

Western Cape 84

TOTAL 347 - so getting the Earthcache rewards is now a lot easier.

Trusting the many more cachers now have their Earth Cache Masters (Platinum) - and 100 ECs is also now so much more possible for local cachers.

western Cape have dominated this type - and a good few new ones planned for the MEGA too - so lloks lik it may be the first province to break 100 earthcaches on its own.

August 25, 2016

Log statistics: Part 6: Funny spelling

It appears as if many cachers have not read the Harry Potter books yet, because the word "muggle" is spelled at least 43 different ways in the logs!

maggles

maugel (German?)

miggels

miggle (Only slightly bothersome)

mogels

moggels

moggles

mogles

mogol

moguls (I kid you not!)

moogles

mouggle

mubble

mubblers (Just stand around mumbling incoherently...)

muckle

mugals

mugels

muggel

muggeles

mugggles

muggkles

mugglars (Thieving ones)

mugglers (Hits you over the head?)

muggles

muggless

mugglets

mugglettes (The female version?)

mugglez

mugglies

muggloid

mugglus

mughal

mughles

muglar (Musical)

mugler

muglers

mugles

mugless (Can't drink coffee)

muglet (A small one)

muglettes

muglies (Not a pretty sight)

muglles

muklers

This list left me in stitches. Loved it.

1.6k · August 25, 2016

Danie - any chance of an update on the number of trackables and coins in circulation in SA currently. I would imagine that is also seeing a downward trend?

Sorry, very busy at the moment. I shall try to respond next week, on the Geocoin and Travel bug statistics thread.

1.6k · August 29, 2016

Where have we been caching the past year? Part 1:

For the year ending 26 August 2016, the Western Cape was the province where the most finds were logged.

1. Western Cape:  59041 finds
2. Gauteng:       53198 finds
3. KZN:           24744 finds
4. Eastern Cape:  23428 finds
5. Mpumalanga:     9260 finds
6. Free State:     7387 finds
7. North West:     6196 finds
8. Limpopo:        2775 finds
9. Northern Cape:  1691 finds

  South Africa: 128679 finds

RSA%20finds%20per%20province%202016.jpg

1.6k · August 30, 2016

Where have we been caching the last year? Part 2:

RSA%20Finds%20per%20province%20year-on-year%20change.jpg

It is good to see that three of the small (numberwise!) provinces (Northern Cape, North West and Mpumalanga) showed good growth during the last year.

Not sure what is happening in the Free State and KZN though.

1.6k · August 31, 2016

Part 3: Finds per municipality:

The number of finds for the year ending 26 August 2016:

1. Cape Town:	             28049 finds
2. Pretoria: 	             20261 finds
3. Ethekwini:	             14552 finds
4. Johannesburg:	     12741 finds
5. Ekurhuleni:	             12086 finds
6. Port Elizabeth:	     11662 finds
7. Eden:	             11133 finds
8. West Coast:	              7377 finds
9. Sarah Baartman:	      7024 finds
10. West Rand:	              6785 finds
11. Ehlanzeni:	              6674 finds
12. Cape Winelands:	      6374 finds
13. Overberg:	              5974 finds
14. Mangaung:	              4159 finds
15. Umgungundlovu:	      3398 finds
16. Buffalo City:	      3238 finds
17. Dr Kenneth Kaunda:	      3080 finds
18. Bojanala:	              2776 finds
19. Ugu:	              2595 finds
20. Sedibeng:	              1728 finds
21. Nkangala:	              1659 finds
22. Thabo Mofutsanyane:	      1377 finds
23. Uthukela:	              1303 finds
24. Mopani:	              1223 finds
25. Fezile Dabi:	      1212 finds
26. Gert Sibande:	      1082 finds
27. Amathole:	               900 finds
28. Waterberg:	               651 finds
29. Uthungulu:	               612 finds
30. iLembe:	               593 finds
31. Lejweleputswa:	       586 finds
32. Central Karoo:	       582 finds
33. Harry Gwala:	       579 finds
34. Capricorn:	               571 finds
35. Namakwa:	               558 finds
36. Umkhanyakude:	       459 finds
37. Chris Hani:	               435 finds
38. Zululand:	               376 finds
39. Amajuba:	               339 finds
40. Siyanda:	               333 finds
41. Pixley ka Seme:	       320 finds
42. Frances Baard:	       313 finds
43. Joe Gqabi:	               263 finds
44. Vhembe:	               257 finds
45. Ngaka Modiri Molema:       232 finds
46. Xhariep:	               214 finds
47. John Taolo Gaetsewe:       197 finds
48. Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati: 182 finds
49. Sekhukhune:	               126 finds
50. Umzinyathi:	               111 finds
51. O.R.Tambo:	                78 finds
52. Alfred Nzo:	                16 finds

4.2k · August 31, 2016

Really interesting to see the KZN stats.

There seem to be a LOT of cachers coming to events and newbies popping up all the time BUT there is a still a significant drop off from 2015 (and that excludes the MEGA - or do these stats still compare 2015 (incl MEGA finds in Oct 14)?

Really need to look at if us longer term cachers are scaring newbies off with either an elitist view - or internal politics - or not being willing to assist the newbies?

Hopefully it is none of these and just a statistical anomoly. Seems to be great in the other 2 large areas of GP & WC

1.6k · August 31, 2016

There seem to be a LOT of cachers coming to events and newbies popping up all the time BUT there is a still a significant drop off from 2015 (and that excludes the MEGA - or do these stats still compare 2015 (incl MEGA finds in Oct 14)?

I compared the year ending 26 August 2016 with the year ending 26 August 2015, so it does indeed include the MEGA. That probably explains the big drop off in KZN.

1.6k · September 1, 2016

Part 4: Municipalities with the most/fewest finds:

For the year ending 26 August 2016:

RSA%20Top%2010%20municipalities.jpg

One out of every 7 finds was in Cape Town last year - the top caching location by far.

The top 10 municipalities got 69.5% of the total number of logs.

The bottom 10 only got 0.7% of the total.

RSA%20Bottom%2010%20municipalities.jpg

For those who don't know where the district municipalities are:

- Alfred Nzo is in the eastern part of the Eastern Cape, bordering on KZN.

- O.R. Tambo is just to the west of Alfred Nzo, in the Transkei. (Around Umtata.)

- Umzinyathi is in the central part of Natal, around Glencoe and Greytown.

- Sekhukhune is the southeastern part of Limpopo, mostly around Groblersdal and Burgersfort.

1.6k · September 2, 2016

Part 5: Finds per Municipality: Change from the previous year

First the municipalities which had the largest increase:

RSA%20Top%2010%20municipalities%20delta.jpg

Buffalo City (East London) increased to 3238 finds this year from 1011 finds the previous year. Amazing.

The following municipalities had the largest decrease:

RSA%20Bottom%2010%20municipalities%20delta.jpg

Alfred Nzo managed to get the fewest (total) number of logs and the largest decrease in one year!

Interesting that the top increase (Buffalo City) and the top decrease (Alfred Nzo) are so close to each other.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Danie Viljoen

1.6k · September 5, 2016

South Africa vs. the World:

Because of the large numbers involved, I am not normally in a position to generate worldwide statistics. Therefore I was glad to receive the following numbers in a message from Geocaching HQ recently:

Worldwide statistics for the period 1 January 2016 to 29 August 2016:
Total number of active caches:                           2 924 797 
Total number of cachers who have logged at least 1 find: 1 560 957
Total number of caches found :                           2 757 335
Total number of new caches published:                      374 674
Total number of events:                                     23 449
Total number of CITO event logs:                            39 575

I subsequently generated the corresponding numbers for South Africa:
Total number of active caches:                              13 935 (0.48% of the world total)
Total number of cachers who have logged at least 1 find:     7 414 (0.47% of the world total)
Total number of caches found:                               13 285 (0.48% of the world total)
Total number of new caches published:                        1 951 (0.52% of the world total)
Total number of events:                                        169 (0.72% of the world total)
Total number of CITO event logs:                               316 (0.80% of the world total)

From the above it appears as if we are 50% more social and 66% more environmentally concerned than the rest of the world! :lol:

1.6k · September 8, 2016

Part 6: New caches:

The Western Cape did not only get the most find logs; most of the new caches were placed there as well during the past year:

1. Western Cape:  778
2. Gauteng:	  716
3. Eastern Cape:  524
4. Kwazulu Natal: 486
5. Mpumalanga:	  222
6. North West:	  115
7. Northern Cape:  52
8. Limpopo:	   36
9. Free State:	   35

  South Africa: 2964

Half of all the new caches are in the Western Cape and Gauteng; 84% in the big four provinces.

RSA%20new%20caches%202016.jpg

1.6k · September 9, 2016

Part 7: New caches, change from previous year:

During the year ending 2 September, 23.4% more new caches were published in South Africa than the previous year. All but two provinces increased their growth. The Free State stands out with 20.5% fewer new caches than the previous year. Once again it is good to see the healthy accelleration of growth in most of the small provinces, especially Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

RSA%20new%20caches%20delta%202016.jpg

1.6k · September 21, 2016

Karma, part 1:

Up to 18 September 2016, a total of 31584 cachers have been active in South Africa.

Of these 31584, 30473 have found at least one cache in South Africa.

The rest, 1111 (3.5% of the total), own caches but have not found any.

(I know there are some cachers who place caches under different names. There is also the complication of caches being transferred to other owners. I am assuming that the numbers of these are relatively small).

Only 2181 (6.9% of the total) own at least one cache.

This means that 93.1% of all the cachers rely on 6.9% to place all the caches they find.

(Some of these finders are tourists who can not be expected to own local caches, but I doubt if the number is more than 5 - 10%)

1.6k · September 22, 2016

Karma, part 2:

Yesterday we saw that only about 1 in every 14 South African cachers have placed any caches. Let's see how the numbers change if we filter out the beginners, the once-only cachers and most of the tourists:

If we only consider cachers who have found at least 20 caches, then we are left with 5666 cachers (the top 18%). Even in this group of active South African cachers, a shocking 4074 (72% of the total) do not own any caches. This means that even among active cachers, only one in four owns any caches!

2.3k · September 22, 2016

Eish! That's not cricket is it?

1.6k · September 23, 2016

Karma, part 3:

The following is a list of the cache planters who received the most find logs on their South African caches:

1. Louwtjie&Vroutjie:	         28903
2. GEO936:	                 16571
3. TechnoNut:	                 12894
4. NotBlonde:	                 12403
5. Leon St:	                 12180
6. HeinG:	                 11733
7. pannie&medusae:	         11445
8. paddawan and BoazRuthFields: 11212
9. Fish Eagle:	                 10287
10. CrystalFairy: 	          9321

2.8% of all cache finds in South Africa are on oom Louwtjie's caches. Together these ten received a seventh of all the find logs.

In my view, they are the real superstars of our caching world, even more than the top finders.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Danie Viljoen

1.6k · September 28, 2016

Karma, part 4:

The following cachers have logged the most South African finds without having any hides of their own:

1. Go Eezi:	        2922
2. Ken.woodworm:	1627
3. beeste:	        1328
4. BrendsZA:	        1264
5. T-YoLo:	        1131
6. ChriSonKind:	 994
7. pieterix:	         852
8. Steff110 and Britta: 839
9. The Naudes:	         836
10. SummitCache:	 832

1.6k · September 29, 2016

Karma, part 5:

The following list shows the cache hiders with the best positive difference between the number of finds on their caches and their own number of finds (all only in South Africa). In a way, it can be seen as the cachers who made the largest netto contribution.

1. Louwtjie&Vroutjie:	28903 -	1881 = 27022
2. GEO936:	        16571 -	1227 = 15344
3. NotBlonde:	        12403 -	1543 = 10860
4. BoazRuthFields:	11521 -	 762 = 10759
5. pannie&medusae:	11445 -	2978 =  8467
6. TechnoNut:	        12894 -	4860 =  8034
7. CrystalFairy:	 9321 -	1351 =  7970
8. HeinG:	        11733 -	3809 =  7924
9. Leon St:	        12180 -	4657 =  7523
10. Fish Eagle:	        10287 -	3324 =  6963

1.6k · September 30, 2016

Karma, part 6:

The South African cachers with the worst difference between the number of finds on their caches and their own number of finds:

1. iPajero:   7991 - 13603 = -5612
2. rodnjoan:  1127 -  5856 = -4729
3. GorNat:    1075 -  4794 = -3719
4. Spesbona:	371 -  4067 = -3696
5. terunkie:	617 -  4297 = -3680
6. bergbokkie:	545 -  3910 = -3365
7. dolos:	718 -  3708 = -2990
8. Go Eezi:	  0 -  2922 = -2922
9. fiebs team:	107 -  2875 = -2768
10. mart514:	 61 -  2508 = -2447

4.2k · November 21, 2016

The top 30 cache in SA according to Favourite Points:

Table Mtn Travel Bug Hotel - 424
MEGA 2012 - Voortrekker Uitspan - 123
SS Lusitania - (Disabled) - 119
Table Mountain -Cape Town - 115
Stellenbosch TB Lodge (Archived) - 99
Hiddingh Security TB Hotel - 78
2 Oceans Earthcache - 74
Sailor's Star -73
Table top Trove - 72
Sentinel View - 72
MEGA Surprise (Archived) - 71
UP PERISCOPE - 71
Tardis - 69
Good Hope - 67
Cape Aghulas - 66
Intersect 2.0 - 65
Curse of the FTF#3 - Gauteng - 64
Muzzle Loading Gun - 59
9Icon walk - Trek of the Voortrekkers
Little Netherlands TB Hotel (Archived) - 58
Three Rondavels - 57
Kerneels se klip - 56
The Vault - 56
Antron's Puzzle Box - 54
Valyland (The Wishing Well) - 54
The Penny Ferry - 52
Nailed! - 52
Size Does Matter (Archived) - 52
Geocacher by night - 52
Tip of Africa - 49

Edited November 21, 2016 by Carbon Hunter

4.2k · November 21, 2016

And a comparison to 3 years back - lots of new caches on - and a good few of the old quality caches remain.

2014: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=216914&st=1800&p=5442534entry5442534

2013: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=216914&st=1400&p=5247415entry5247415

May 2013 -

1 GC31WXR Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel 137

2 GC2X329 Stellenbosch TB Lodge 72

3 GC1GZ0K Little Netherlands TB Hotel 45

4 GC3WXRQ MEGA SA 2012 -Voortrekker "Uitspan" Travellers Inn 43

5 GCMYYZ Table Top Trove 41

6 GCVDHN Sailors' Star 40

7 GC185 Sentinel View 39

8 GC1ABZK Table Mountain - Cape Town 38

9 GC20XJH Ipanema 35

GC77E Cape Agulhas 35

11 GC3KM3K Da Vinci Code 34

12 GC2WJ2X Maps et al 33

13 GC1H1D7 Of Diamonds and Pearls 32

14 GC3X9VX MEGA SA 2012 – GETEMDE VRYHEID 31

GC2N4G0 Spring Tide 31

16 GC3X44Z MEGA SA 2012 - The Needle in the Haystack 30

GC1WBRJ Longfinger 30

GC1VJ3T The Piston Cup 30

GC3NMFK Wie-se Clock 30

GC2D9WC SS: Lusitania 30

21 GC44XCJ Size does matter 29

GC3W9N8 9Icon Walk - Trek for the Voortrekker Treasure 29

GC2NYNP Puzzled Birds 29

24 GC20ZC3 THE BIGGEST TREE IN SOUTH AFRICA - AND 5 CHAMPIONS 28

GC2926W A Tribute to Friends and Family 28

GC1BZ22 Kirstenbosch Gardens - Big 5 28

GC2P0XK Almost Metallophobia 28

GC23KTY Good Hope 28

GCQTPD The Mines of Moria 28

30 GCW8AV Training 27

January 2, 2017

Loving all the stats ... thanks

4.2k · January 3, 2017

Just an overview of the current caches available in south Africa - as of end 2016.....

This is in the D/T rating grid - so gives you an idea of what needs to be done - and how prolific certain caches are compared to others.

4.2k · January 3, 2017

Just out of interest - here is a site you can see you global and SA ranking based on number of finds... quite amazing how many finds some users do have!!!!

Cacher stats

January 4, 2017

Just an overview of the current caches available in south Africa - as of end 2016.....

This is in the D/T rating grid - so gives you an idea of what needs to be done - and how prolific certain caches are compared to others.

Thanks Grant ... any chance of getting this per province

4.2k · January 5, 2017

Will need to be one of those GSAK gurus - sorry not me right now []

January 5, 2017

Will need to be one of those GSAK gurus - sorry not me right now []

Hmmmm. I have done this before using GSAK and an Excel Pivot Table. Gimme a day or three .....

PT

January 5, 2017

Will need to be one of those GSAK gurus - sorry not me right now []

Hmmmm. I have done this before using GSAK and an Excel Pivot Table. Gimme a day or three .....

PT

Thanks Pete

January 5, 2017

Will need to be one of those GSAK gurus - sorry not me right now []

OK - Here goes - I accept no responsibility for accuracy

But they should be good to within a cache or two.

Active caches only, including event types by province.

January 5, 2017

Will need to be one of those GSAK gurus - sorry not me right now []

OK - Here goes - I accept no responsibility for accuracy

But they should be good to within a cache or two.

Active caches only, including event types by province.

Awesome thanks Pete

Surprised by the missing DTs in some.

1.6k · January 13, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 1:

At this time most of the December finds should be logged, so here are the statistics for the year 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016:

Most South African finds:

1. iPajero:	 2208 finds
2. Panters:	 1732 finds
3. Spesbona:	 1713 finds
4. tjoklits:	 1471 finds
5. ChrisDen:	 1369 finds
6. Katarn1977:	 1257 finds
7. SKATTIE@1:	 1236 finds
8. Geelvink:	 1176 finds
9. bergbokkie:	 1173 finds
10. cownchicken: 1161 finds

It is good to see that iPajero and cownchicken are back with a vengeance!

Most African finds:

1. iPajero:	 2208 finds
2. Panters:	 1732 finds
3. Spesbona:	 1713 finds
4. tjoklits:	 1472 finds
5. ChrisDen:	 1375 finds
6. Katarn1977:	 1259 finds
7. SKATTIE@1:	 1236 finds
8. Geelvink:	 1176 finds
9. bergbokkie:	 1173 finds
10. cownchicken: 1161 finds

The top 10 African cachers are all South African, so the lists are almost identical.

4.2k · January 13, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 1:

Awesome - looking forward to all 250 posts on these statsDanie :anitongue: :anitongue: :anitongue:

Great to see these -love the stats updates

January 13, 2017

Agreed

1.6k · January 16, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 2:

Number of new caches published in South Africa, per year:

RSA%20new%20caches%20published%202016.jpg

2016 was the best year ever for new caches. On average, 8 new caches were published per day in 2016, 8.4% more than in 2015.

4.2k · January 16, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 2:

Number of new caches published in South Africa, per year:

2016 was the best year ever for new caches. On average, 8 new caches were published per day in 2016, 8.4% more than in 2015.

Awesome news - hope we break the 3000 mark in 2017?

France has shown phenomenal growth in the past 3 years....

Interesting that apart from 2016 (the other 2 MEGA years of 2014 and 2012 were quite low... and the Cape Town MEGA did not place a lot of new caches either compare to the previous 2 MEGAs...

1.6k · January 17, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 3:

The healthy growth in the number of new caches during the past year was good news, but what about the total number of active caches, especially with the recent culling of inactive and dead caches?

The following graph shows the number of active caches per province, at the end of 2015 and 2016 respectively:

2016%20Active%20caches%20per%20province.jpg

South Africa as a whole increased from 12605 active caches to 13894, a 10.2% growth.

It is interesting to notice that the Western Cape has recently regained its number 1 spot, which it lost to Gauteng in 2013.

Most, but not all, provinces showed growth.

The following graph shows the percentage change since the end of 2015:

2016%20Cache%20growth%20per%20province.jpg

While there was lots of action in the Northern and Eastern Cape, things do not look healthy in the Free State and Limpopo, where the number of active caches actually decreased.

January 17, 2017

Very interesting and rather sad about the Free State esp. but it was good to have the clean up done as there were far too many caches laying dormant that were missing

1.6k · January 18, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 4: Finds

The finds per province for 2016:

1. WC	      67718 finds
2. Gauteng    49206 finds
3. EC	      24230 finds
4. KZN	      23029 finds
5. Mpumalanga  9571 finds
6. Free State  6756 finds
7. North West  5902 finds
8. Limpopo     2675 finds
9. NC	       2034 finds

  RSA	     191121 finds

2016%20Finds%20per%20province%20pie.jpg

On average, 524 caches were found per day.

The big four (Western Cape, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KZN) were responsible for 86% of all finds during 2016.

Let's compare it with the previous year:

2016%20Finds%20per%20province.jpg

The number of finds shows a very similar trend as the number of new caches. In the whole of South Africa, 11.1% more caches were found in 2016 than in 2015.

2016%20Finds%20per%20province%20percentage%20change.jpg

Once again the Northern Cape took first place with the highest growth. The Western Cape comes in at a surprising second place, remarkable for one of the big provinces (maybe related to the MEGA?).

The picture for the Free State looks bleaker and bleaker - a massive 26.3% fewer caches were found there in 2016.

January 18, 2017

some interesting info

1.6k · January 19, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 5: Cachers

The number of cachers who found at least one cache in a province:

1. Western Cape: 4213
2. Gauteng:	 2783
3. KZN:	         1687
4. Eastern Cape: 1600
5. Mpumalanga:	 1079
6. Free State:	  966
7. North West:	  806
8. Limpopo:	  567
9. Northern Cape: 389

  RSA	         9558

RSA%20Cachers%20per%20province%202016.jpg

1.6k · January 20, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 6: Number of cachers

The following graph shows the number of cachers active in each province in 2015 and in 2016:

RSA%20Cachers%20per%20province%202015%20and%202016.jpg

The change from 2015 to 2016:

RSA%20Cachers%20per%20province%20change%20from%202015.jpg

This last graph really concerns me. This means that only two provinces (Western and Eastern Cape) showed an increased number of cachers last year. All the rest had less, and some of them quite significantly. (Interesting that the Northern Cape had a record number of new caches, but a huge decrease in cachers!) South Africa as a whole showed a decrease as well, for the first time.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Danie Viljoen

1.6k · January 23, 2017

2016 Statistics, Part 7

RSA%20Number%20of%20cachers.jpg

Unless there are several hundred very late logs (extremely unlikely at this stage), our almost perfect exponential trend is broken. For the first time ever there were fewer South African cachers active in 2016 than in the year before. Usually there is a very strong correlation between the number of new caches and the number of cachers, so I was quite surprised (and disappointed) to discover this. One can speculate about the reasons, but with access to a GPS getting ever cheaper and easier, I can't come up with a convincing theory why this is happening now.

2.3k · January 23, 2017

Very interesting! I wonder what caused this?

1.6k · January 24, 2017

2016 Statistics: Part 8: New Cachers

RSA%20New%20cachers%20per%20year%202016.jpg

This graph shows how many cachers started in each year. As in the total number, the number of new cachers also dropped for the first time in 2016.

The following graph shows the percentage of new cachers in each year, in other words, the number of new cachers divided by the total number of cachers active in each year:

2016%20RSA%20Percentage%20new%20cachers.jpg

It always amazes me to see how high these percentages are. Another way to view this is that the dropout rate is enormous - only a third of all cachers active in the last few years had more than a year's experience.

If we want to see high numbers of active cachers, the way to go would definitely be to try to retain the experienced cachers rather than to market for new cachers.

January 24, 2017

2016 Statistics: Part 8: New Cachers

...

If we want to see high numbers of active cachers, the way to go would definitely be to try to retain the experienced cachers rather than to market for new cachers.

100% agree with Danie here ... we need to find a way to re-excite those that are losing interest and make them want to improve the game further by adding to it (ie placing some quality caches). But lets keep encouraging the younger generation as well to keep the new blood coming in as well. I know there are a few scout masters here in KZN trying to get a geocaching badge approved for South African Scouts, maybe someone has a similar idea for other provinces ... to you "well done" ... lets look for more ideas like this.

4.2k · January 24, 2017

2016 Statistics: Part 8: New Cachers

...

If we want to see high numbers of active cachers, the way to go would definitely be to try to retain the experienced cachers rather than to market for new cachers.

100% agree with Danie here ... we need to find a way to re-excite those that are losing interest and make them want to improve the game further by adding to it (ie placing some quality caches). But lets keep encouraging the younger generation as well to keep the new blood coming in as well. I know there are a few scout masters here in KZN trying to get a geocaching badge approved for South African Scouts, maybe someone has a similar idea for other provinces ... to you "well done" ... lets look for more ideas like this.

Very true - the drop out rates - and keeping cachers excited I think are very real - and not just in South Africa.

I really hope that we can re-invigorate the caching community - there have been some awesome cachers that have taken a break - I know some will return but others will be gone forever.

I hope there is something done. I have been keen to arrange some more interesting types of events - but time and know how are my limiting factor. Perhaps we should all try to get retention in the expereinced cachign community some how?

1.6k · January 25, 2017

2016 Statistics: Part 9

In Part 7 we saw that the number of cachers in South Africa decreased for the first time in 2016. In Part 8 I started investigating the reason for this. There it appeared that the number of new cachers also decreased. What about the group of "active" cachers, those who found at least 12 caches during the year?

RSA%202016%20Active%20cachers.jpg

Very much the same trend as for the new cachers. Last year this time I said that I do not worry so much about the high dropout rate of new cachers, but that I'll start worrying when the number of frequent cachers begins to drop...

It is always interesting to see what percentage of cachers are active:

RSA%202016%20Percentage%20active%20cachers.jpg

This graph shows a downward trend the last four years; fewer of the total number of cachers (which are overwhelmingly new cachers, as we saw in part 8) continue long enough to find 12 caches, even though it gets easier by the year (more caches to find).

It should be interesting to see what these numbers will be in future. This is either a temporary blip, or the beginning of a decline, or a sign that the local caching community has reached maturity with numbers fluctuating around an average. I suspect the latter.

Edited January 25, 2017 by Danie Viljoen

1.6k · January 26, 2017

2016 Statistics: Part 10: Most new caches placed

The following cachers placed the most new caches in Africa during 2016:

1. Panters:	      140
2. WC Geocachers.:   102
3. SawaSawa:	      101
4. PieterM:	       90
5. GC Putte:	       81
6. SKATTIE@1:	       67
7. ChrisDen:	       64
8. Boats007:	       62
9. Monti's Adventure: 59
10. WÅLDO:	       52

Edited January 26, 2017 by Danie Viljoen

2.3k · January 26, 2017

Well done to all the cache placers! :anitongue: We need you around. After hitting the 300+ mark I've started slowing down a bit. The maintenance starts becoming an issue. :unsure:

Edited January 26, 2017 by cincol

Statistics - bend it anyway you like!

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