Geocaching Statistics

1.3k · September 21, 2017

Is this a YTD percentage?

Assume Cachers is the number of unique cachers that have logged a find in the year? That tells us then that fewer cachers are finding more on a year on year comparison.

1.6k · September 21, 2017

18 minutes ago, GlobalRat said:

Is this a YTD percentage?

Assume Cachers is the number of unique cachers that have logged a find in the year? That tells us then that fewer cachers are finding more on a year on year comparison.

Project GC does not say if it is YTD or full year - I am assuming it is over similar periods, otherwise the results would be meaningless.

Cachers is the number of cachers active in the country in a whole year. Not sure what "active" means, but I assume it means logging at least one cache in the country.

See for example: https://project-gc.com/Statistics/Overview?country=Germany&submit=Filter

1.3k · September 21, 2017

38 minutes ago, Danie Viljoen said:

Project GC does not say if it is YTD or full year - I am assuming it is over similar periods, otherwise the results would be meaningless.

Cachers is the number of cachers active in the country in a whole year. Not sure what "active" means, but I assume it means logging at least one cache in the country.

See for example: https://project-gc.com/Statistics/Overview?country=Germany&submit=Filter

They quote two figures

One compares YTD 2017 with the same period in 2016 i.e. apples with apples

The other compares the whole of 2016 with the "YTD of 2017" (a whole year vs YTD) i.e., apples with pears.

The table in your previous post seems to list the latter, which is a very skewed view as one is comparing a YTD of 2017 against the whole of 2016.

This seems to be the case for all the different stats except for Caches hidden, not sure where they get the "1626" figure from.

PGC001.jpg.cb063888c0bfdf2f4bed36533f733552.jpg

1.6k · September 21, 2017

2 minutes ago, GlobalRat said:

They quote two figures

Thanks for clarifying that!

1.3k · September 21, 2017

Same source, but using YTD 2016 compared to YTD 2017

The similar trend across most countries is quite amazing. Almost in all the number of finds are up by a fewer number of cachers doing the finding.

4.2k · September 22, 2017

From this table I see SA is at position 23 in the global enabled hides list.

I seem to recall that in years gone by we were a little higher up the list (around 18 if I remember correctly). I have been scouring the old stats list (and apart from having a good giggle at some of the early stats - like being amazed at someone finding 24 Events in total - cowandchicken) - I could not find the list of countries - does anyone have access to the top countries by time?

1.6k · September 22, 2017

11 minutes ago, Carbon Hunter said:

From this table I see SA is at position 23 in the global enabled hides list.

This is not the full list - we could even be lower. I am sure there must be a way to get the full list from Project GC, but I could not figure out how.

1.3k · September 22, 2017

28 minutes ago, Carbon Hunter said:

From this table I see SA is at position 23 in the global enabled hides list.

I seem to recall that in years gone by we were a little higher up the list (around 18 if I remember correctly). I have been scouring the old stats list (and apart from having a good giggle at some of the early stats - like being amazed at someone finding 24 Events in total - cowandchicken) - I could not find the list of countries - does anyone have access to the top countries by time?

I found an old spreadsheet on the forums which ranks the countries between 2007-2014. South Africa started at 16 in 2007 and slipped to 22 in 2014.

1.3k · September 22, 2017

We currently sit 23rd out of 247 countries that have caches as 2017-09-22.

Countries.jpg.14823895a55fda9cd1d769a13a2e9112.jpg

Edited September 22, 2017 by GlobalRat

1.3k · September 22, 2017

And the rest

1.3k · September 22, 2017

1.3k · September 22, 2017

1.3k · September 22, 2017

September 23, 2017

Thanks for the info

Lets hope we can get better ... we have some beautiful locations in SA that are still crying for caches ... Im currently in discussion with an owner of land to place a batch of around 50 ... prepping containers at the moment

1.6k · September 23, 2017

Please show nos. 31 to 48 as well, please?

1.3k · September 27, 2017

On ‎2017‎-‎09‎-‎23 at 11:04 AM, Danie Viljoen said:

Please show nos. 31 to 48 as well, please?

Not sure where they went, here you go

Countries1.jpg.83dd1da957f7ec76c51add415f0d77c5.jpg

1.3k · October 6, 2017

Country Stats end Sept (Top 30 & Neighbours)

Edited October 6, 2017 by GlobalRat

1.6k · October 9, 2017

Not directly caching related, but fascinating and surprising:

1.6k · October 10, 2017

map-worlds-population.jpg.edc31fedb72accdcfa4ec0c370c3c4de.jpg

The majority of people live between N20 and N40, and only about 10% of all people live in the southern hemisphere.

1.3k · October 28, 2017

Country Stats Oct (Top 30 & Neighbours)

We lost ground on Slovakia

December 6, 2017

The numbers are going to take a beating with all the Kranzkloof caches being archived

1.6k · January 4, 2018

Starting tomorrow, I shall start with summary statistics for 2017. (I am just waiting for the last few late logs to trickle in.)

1.6k · January 5, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 1: New caches

2135 new caches were placed in South Africa during 2017, 29% fewer than in the previous year.

1.6k · January 8, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 2: Finds

165336 finds were logged in South Africa during 2017; 15% fewer than in the previous year.

On average 453 finds per day, vs. 532 in 2016.

January 8, 2018

Wow that is sad with the fewer placements and assuming increased archived with KKNR going cant be good are the active number of caches increasing or decreasing (total)

January 8, 2018

I predict it will get worse.

Looking at the WC where I am from, cachers like to find caches and FTF's but are not prepared to give back.

They like to find them but don't want to place them.

Edited January 8, 2018 by PieterM
New information

January 9, 2018

Has SA not just reached saturation level? We are very active but we cannot get the number of unfound caches in SA below 10 000.

In the major metro areas the are very few people that have found more than 60% of the caches.

Edited January 9, 2018 by ChrisDen

1.6k · January 10, 2018

21 hours ago, ChrisDen said:

Has SA not just reached saturation level? We are very active but we cannot get the number of unfound caches in SA below 10 000.

It depends what you mean with saturation. There are parts of the world (especially in Germany and the USA) where the cache densities are much higher than here. In fact, there are still massive areas of South Africa without a single cache within tens of kilometers.

As I have shown before, there is a strong correlation between the number of (active) cachers and the number of new caches that are placed. If we consistently want more new caches we need to grow the number of cachers.

1.6k · January 10, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 3: Most found South African caches

The following South African caches received the most find logs during 2017

 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds
 2. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove	              AndyT1	     Cape Town	200 finds
 3. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista	      SawaSawa	     Cape Town	171 finds
 4. GC62NFH  Birth of a gentle giant	      scubie999	     Overberg	167 finds
 5. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                    Zephyr2	     Overberg	162 finds
 6. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.3	              Andredj	     Cape Town	160 finds
 7. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                    vespax	     Cape Town	146 finds
 8. GC6ZB58  SAS Somerset                     krazikatz	     Cape Town	127 finds
 9. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel	      mr panda	     Cape Town	124 finds
10. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                     Peter Scholtz  Overberg	119 finds

These 10 caches are all in the Western Cape. The first non-West Cape cache is no. 18, GC19QVQ Three Rondavels, in Mpumalanga, with 94 finds.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Danie Viljoen

January 10, 2018

Saturated as in caches per active cachers. Not physical saturation on the ground. Cachers/Sq km compares with caches/Sq km

January 10, 2018

10 hours ago, Danie Viljoen said:

2017 Statistics, part 3: Most found South African caches

The following South African caches received the most find logs during 2017


 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds
 2. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove	              AndyT1	     Cape Town	200 finds
 3. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista	      SawaSawa	     Cape Town	171 finds
 4. GC62NFH  Birth of a gentle giant	      scubie999	     Overberg	167 finds
 5. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                    Zephyr2	     Overberg	162 finds
 6. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.3	              Andredj	     Cape Town	160 finds
 7. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                    vespax	     Cape Town	146 finds
 8. GC6ZB58  SAS Somerset                     krazikatz	     Cape Town	127 finds
 9. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel	      mr panda	     Cape Town	124 finds
10. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                     Peter Scholtz  Overberg	119 finds

These 10 caches are all in the Western Cape. The first non-West Cape cache is no. 18, GC19QVQ Three Rondavels, in Mpumalanga, with 94 finds.

Shows where the tourists go. I predict a swing when the Cape runs out of water

January 10, 2018

30 minutes ago, ChrisDen said:

Saturated as in caches per active cachers. Not physical saturation on the ground. Cachers/Sq km compares with caches/Sq km

There are active cachers with 2000 plus finds but only 5 or less hidden. The Karma score gives a good indication.

1.6k · January 11, 2018

14 hours ago, ChrisDen said:

Saturated as in caches per active cachers. Not physical saturation on the ground. Cachers/Sq km compares with caches/Sq km

If you look back to some of my older postings, you should find a graph of average number of new caches placed per cacher. I haven't looked at it recently, but I remember that it was remarkably constant over time; that is why I said that there is a strong correlation between the number of cachers and new caches. As PieterM said, there are always exceptions, but averaged over the total group, each cacher tends to place a constant number of caches per year.

1.6k · January 11, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 4: Most new caches placed

2135 new caches were placed in South Africa during 2017. The following cachers placed the highest numbers:

 1. PieterM:        72
 2. Adventrevor:    66
 3. iPajero:        65
 4. BoazRuthFields: 53
 5. FreekG:         51
 6. SKATTIE@1:      46
 7. QwikChek:       38
    Panthera03:     38
 9. GForceZA:       37
10. SawaSawa:       36

Almost a quarter of all the new caches were placed by these ten cachers!

Edited January 11, 2018 by Danie Viljoen

1.3k · January 11, 2018

On ‎2018‎-‎01‎-‎08 at 7:49 PM, PieterM said:

I predict it will get worse.

Looking at the WC where I am from, cachers like to find caches and FTF's but are not prepared to give back.

They like to find them but don't want to place them.

Time will tell. I think however there is some truth to what PieterM has stated. Cache finding behavior is a large contributor to what happens to the cache population. CO's will lose interest in placing caches if people aren't interested in finding them (doesn't tick some statistical box) in the long term. Of course there are other factors at play and the usual warra warra of the glory days etc. but it does seem to be a common gripe on forums around the world.

1.3k · January 11, 2018

On ‎2018‎-‎01‎-‎10 at 8:32 AM, Danie Viljoen said:

2017 Statistics, part 3: Most found South African caches

The following South African caches received the most find logs during 2017


 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds
 2. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove	              AndyT1	     Cape Town	200 finds
 3. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista	      SawaSawa	     Cape Town	171 finds
 4. GC62NFH  Birth of a gentle giant	      scubie999	     Overberg	167 finds
 5. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                    Zephyr2	     Overberg	162 finds
 6. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.3	              Andredj	     Cape Town	160 finds
 7. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                    vespax	     Cape Town	146 finds
 8. GC6ZB58  SAS Somerset                     krazikatz	     Cape Town	127 finds
 9. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel	      mr panda	     Cape Town	124 finds
10. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                     Peter Scholtz  Overberg	119 finds

These 10 caches are all in the Western Cape. The first non-West Cape cache is no. 18, GC19QVQ Three Rondavels, in Mpumalanga, with 94 finds.

I suspect there's a fairly high % of those finds that are by non-SA cachers....

1.3k · January 11, 2018

On ‎2018‎-‎01‎-‎08 at 7:56 AM, Danie Viljoen said:

2017 Statistics, part 2: Finds

165336 finds were logged in South Africa during 2017; 15% fewer than in the previous year.

On average 453 finds per day, vs. 532 in 2016.

Quite a drop

January 11, 2018

On 10/01/2018 at 8:32 AM, Danie Viljoen said:

2017 Statistics, part 3: Most found South African caches

The following South African caches received the most find logs during 2017


 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds
 2. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove	              AndyT1	     Cape Town	200 finds
 3. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista	      SawaSawa	     Cape Town	171 finds
 4. GC62NFH  Birth of a gentle giant	      scubie999	     Overberg	167 finds
 5. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                    Zephyr2	     Overberg	162 finds
 6. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.3	              Andredj	     Cape Town	160 finds
 7. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                    vespax	     Cape Town	146 finds
 8. GC6ZB58  SAS Somerset                     krazikatz	     Cape Town	127 finds
 9. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel	      mr panda	     Cape Town	124 finds
10. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                     Peter Scholtz  Overberg	119 finds

These 10 caches are all in the Western Cape. The first non-West Cape cache is no. 18, GC19QVQ Three Rondavels, in Mpumalanga, with 94 finds.

Hi Danie.

Love your stats. Just a quick question. If I count the found logs for 2017 on the cache listing I get well over 320 "Found it" logs. Am I missing something?

1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds

I have a feeling the negativity and fighting on social media in 2017 did not help things either.

Keep up the great work.

1.3k · January 11, 2018

47 minutes ago, Spesbona said:
Hi Danie.

Love your stats. Just a quick question. If I count the found logs for 2017 on the cache listing I get well over 320 "Found it" logs. Am I missing something?
1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc	     Cape Town  269 finds
I have a feeling the negativity and fighting on social media in 2017 did not help things either.

Keep up the great work.

The API updates of cache logs don’t always update correctly if one does delta updates. Ran mine a few times on that cache and it wouldn’t perform the delta update correctly. Only when I ran a total refresh of all cache logs for the cache did it tie up to what is listed on the GC site.

Currently I get 327 finds for 2017 out of a total 354 logs, and that’s because i’ve just run an update.

It’s difficult and a very timeous process to keep the logs in sync unfortunately. So depends on when Danie last did an update, late logs by cachers etc. can also play havoc so the number can change. Have seen some cachers do logs over 6 months after finding a cache.

Edited January 11, 2018 by GlobalRat

1.6k · January 11, 2018

1 hour ago, GlobalRat said:

The API updates of cache logs don’t always update correctly if one does delta updates. Ran mine a few times on that cache and it wouldn’t perform the delta update correctly. Only when I ran a total refresh of all cache logs for the cache did it tie up to what is listed on the GC site.

This is a bummer - I just ran "Get recent logs" (All logs) AND refreshed the cache data, and I gained only one find log. There should indeed be 327 - I counted them manually. It looks as if I shall have to delete all my logs and start fresh...

January 12, 2018

Love the stats Danie. Thank you for your effort.

January 12, 2018

Do you not have to select log 1 to 9999 to get them all?

1.3k · January 12, 2018

7 hours ago, ChrisDen said:

Do you not have to select log 1 to 9999 to get them all?

Yep

1.6k · January 23, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 2: Finds (corrected)

I re-downloaded my whole African database, and now the numbers for 2017 look even worse. There was a drop of 30% in the number of caches found in South Africa during 2017. I included the number 2 and 3 African countries in this graph - the Canary Islands surpassed South Africa for the first time during June 2017. (Mostly European tourists.)

January 23, 2018

I don't hang out on the forum much and don't think I've ever commented. My 5c worth on the drop in caches logged and placed. From a personal point of view, 2017 was hectic. I literally had times when I was starting to show withdrawals, but just didn't always have time to cache. Work was busier, kids getting bigger so have more sports on weekends, the easy unfound park and grabs have become less and so on. I know there are a few other PE cachers who have said the same kind of thing.

As for placing caches, the busier one's life gets the less time you also have to do maintenance. I would never encourage somebody to just get out there and place caches for the sake of placing them, no matter how good their hides. Especially if they're not experienced CO's who realise how much time doing maintenance could take if your caches aren't all park and grabs. And even then. I've seen some experienced CO's who have caches deactivated for way too long because they just don't have time and forget about them. I've got to be honest that I'm guilty there as well.

And then lastly. I think we all need to be encouraged to get more newbies caching. Because if we don't our older caches will get less and less finds and then only by visitors and not locals as they will all have done them at some stage or another.

Think I'll do this again some time. ;-)

1.6k · January 24, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 3: Most found South African caches (corrected)

The following South African caches had the most finds during 2017:

 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel  CapeDoc        328 finds
 2. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove                  AndyT1         224 finds
 3. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.3                 Andredj        195 finds
 4. GC62NFH  Birth of a gentle giant          scubie999      190 finds
 5. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista        SawaSawa       184 finds
 6. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                    Zephyr2        173 finds
 7. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                    vespax         162 finds
 8. GC6ZB58  SAS Somerset                     krazikatz      133 finds
 9. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel       mr panda       131 finds
10. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                     Peter Scholtz  123 finds

The first non-Western Cape cache is GC19QVQ Three Rondavels, owned by CrystalFairy in Mpumalanga, with 98 finds for the year.

If one looks at the whole of Africa, Madeira and the Canary Islands dominate:

 1. GC6BK02  CR7                                            Madeira        1131 finds
 2. GC6Z01C  Puerto de Mogán - Between the old and the new  Canary Islands  820 finds
 3. GC4QQD3  Horizonte                                      Canary Islands  804 finds
 4. GC1QB6K  Palm Beach                                     Canary Islands  741 finds
 5. GC6Z00Q  Puerto de Mogán - Parking                      Canary Islands  722 finds
 6. GC1G6MP  Vista dunas-View dunes-Aussicht Dünen          Canary Islands  711 finds
 7. GC6AAJR  Boardwalk 3                                    Canary Islands  688 finds
 8. GC31AT3  Christoph Columbus 1502 A.D.                   Canary Islands  633 finds
 9. GC6Z015  Puerto de Mogán - "Boatparking"                Canary Islands  618 finds
10. GC6FM0H  C.I.T.O.-CacheBox - Dunes of Maspalomas        Canary Islands  616 finds

58. GC6KAP6  Al Baraka	                                    Morocco         365 finds

73. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel                South Africa    328 finds

Edited January 24, 2018 by Danie Viljoen

1.6k · January 25, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 4: Finds per province

First the four big provinces, followed by the rest. (The only province that has not shown a decline is the Northern Cape.)

The last graph shows the big four as a percentage of the total of the whole country.

1.6k · January 26, 2018

Finds per province, over all time

Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State got 84.5% of all the finds.

January 27, 2018

Hi Danie.

Thanks for all the effort and redoing the stats.

It seems the Eastern Cape was not as bad hit as some of the other provinces on the finds side.

The planting of caches might be another story.

1.6k · January 29, 2018

2017 Statistics, part 5: Most South African finds

The top South African cache finders for 2017 are:

 1. Geelvink       2158
 2. pieterix       1597
 3. L S N          1454
 4. tjoklits       1353
 5. divmango       1341
 6. iPajero        1319
 7. ChrisDen        938
 8. PieterM         903
 9. terunkie        836
10. Archipelagian   823
    n00n00          823
12. GorNat          800
13. SKATTIE@1       780
14. Panters         773
15. M²C²D           729
16. Andredj         714
17. cownchicken     695
18. GlobalRat       690
19. Evolutionaries  672
20. The Huskies     666

I don't think many people have logged more than 2000 finds in one year; I'll look into this later.

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