Research for class paper

[dastoryteller]

Good morning everyone! I am writing a column for a class assignment and I need some background information and I was hoping the community could help. I have a few questions and I thought this might be where I can get the most accurate, up to date answers.

Are there any numbers regarding how many people, worldwide, go geocaching? 

Approximately how many geocaches are there now?

Thanks!

 

[RuideAlmeida]

27 minutes ago, dastoryteller said:

Are there any numbers regarding how many people, worldwide, go geocaching? 

Some info here, by instance.

[+cerberus1]

Not sure if the Newsroom is still accurate, but "fast Facts" has some numbers.

[+The A-Team]

5 hours ago, dastoryteller said:

Are there any numbers regarding how many people, worldwide, go geocaching? 

That's a tricky stat to determine. It depends on how you define "someone who goes geocaching". Does someone who found a single cache 10 years ago count? What about a family of four with one of which who rarely goes on the geocaching excursions? What about someone who only hides caches and never logs any finds? Even if you could pin down a definition, finding a number would still be difficult. We could look at the number of accounts that have been created on this site, but that number would also include spammer accounts (which get disabled but not removed), multiple accounts for some users, accounts that never logged a find, etc. I think a veeeery rough number (with no real evidence to back up my guess) would be that there are a few hundred thousand accounts that semi-regularly log finds.

Quote

Approximately how many geocaches are there now?

This one is actually very easy to answer if you equate geocaching to Geocaching.com. If you go to the home page of the site (ie. the search page) and just hit the search button, it will tell you how many geocaches are currently listed on this site as active (ie. non-archived). At the time of this post, the count is 3,083,617. This number doesn't include any geocaches that have been independently listed on other geocache listing sites, but the vast majority of all geocaches are listed on this site anyway.

[garyo1954]

The only independent study I've seen was done based on census numbers....(best I can tell those were in 2010). They also mention an online survey but received 20 response which would be too few to make any credible inference.
 

".....looking at the number of logs per zone paints an entirely different picture. First, the population density result from  the  low and  high cache  zones  was  reversed.  While high cache  zones  have  lower  population  density,  high log zones  have  higher  population density  than  low log  zones (778   people/sq.km   vs.  485people/sq.km).  

This means people in higher density areas are logging more searches. Many other demographic attributes were significant as well...

•Age: high log zones have significantly younger geocachers (37.9 vs 39.9 years old on average)

•Climate: high log zones were significantly warmer (averaging  about  3  degrees Farenheit warmer than the measurements  for low log zones) and had less precipitation (an average of 41.6mm less per year)

•Area:  high log zones were significantly smaller than lowlog zones (171  sq.  km  vs.  306  sq.  km),  indicating more urbanness in high log zones.

•Education: the education score was significantly higher in high log zones (2.14 vs. 2.08)

•Income: median income was higher in high log zones vs. low long zones (about $6,170 higher)

We also found statistically significant differences in married and unmarried  populations.  Low log  zones have 45.6%  married vs. 54.4% unmarried while high
log zones have a slightly different 44.4% married vs. 55.6% unmarried  population. However,  we  consider  these  differences practically insignificant and exclude them from our analysis.

•Crime:  crime was significantly higher  overall in the personal and  property crime subcategories in  high log zones vs. low log zones. This is likely an  indication that high log zones tended to be more urban.

The analysis of these zones reveals that while lower population density areas  tend to have more caches, higher population density areas tend to have more logs per cache. Furthermore, while  no demographic features significantly impacted the number of caches in a zone, nearly all of our demographic features showed significant differences based on the number of logs. Despite a very democratic placement of caches, those with the most activity tended to be in zones that were wealthier, better educated, younger, more urban, and had better weather."
 
From: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~golbeck/temp/geocaching.pdf

 

[dastoryteller]

Thanks so much for all your input, I really appreciate it! I decided not to specifically say how many geocachers there are right now, but what I did say is this: "Geocaching.com bills it as “the world's largest treasure hunting game” with over 3 million geocaches in over 190 countries." with a citation at the end of the article for Geocaching.com. If anyone would like to read my article, please me know and I'll post the link. Thanks again!

[+cerberus1]

15 hours ago, dastoryteller said:

... but what I did say is this: "Geocaching.com bills it as “the world's largest treasure hunting game” ...

No offense, but I wish you didn't...

I think that was the worst slogan for this hobby , with many thinking it may be true.  "Treasure hunt" often requiring digging doesn't help either.

Further, I think trackables go missing because they've become the "treasure" when those once n done weekend attempters see that there's not much else in there.  Or maybe they're simply just a souvenir for their weekend...

[+niraD]

21 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

No offense, but I wish you didn't...

Same here. I avoid using the phrase "treasure hunt" when describing geocaching. I prefer the term "scavenger hunt" because the things you're looking for in a scavenger hunt generally have no intrinsic value, the only value is in the experience of finding them. Using the term "treasure hunt" sets the wrong expectations, even if Groundspeak uses it in their promotional material.

[+Viajero Perdido]

I prefer "hide and seek".

Then I get the you-must-be-daft look, so I append, "It's international".

That seems to make it respectable.

[+niraD]

Hmm... The term "hide and seek" makes me think that I'm looking for other people, rather than looking for objects of some sort.

[dastoryteller]

Thank you for your input cerberus1, niraD, and Viajero Perdido, you put into words what I felt, but couldn't put my finger on. You're entirely right about the connotations of the word 'treasure'. This is why I was kind of hoping that someone in the community might want to see my article before I turn it in. (I could post a Google docs link to the paper). I really do want to represent both the game and the players accurately. All I know is what I have read (here) about geocaching and the few experiences I have had personally.

Currently the teacher's assistants are taking a look at it and I will have a chance to make changes they suggest (and any of my own) before I turn it in officially. I will delete the slogan completely and rephrase the remaining sentence. What I have always used to help explain geocaching to people is this: It's like 'high tech hide and seek"; from there I explain how the game works. Once again, thanks for your help.

[+cerberus1]

23 minutes ago, dastoryteller said:

What I have always used to help explain geocaching to people is this: It's like 'high tech hide and seek"; from there I explain how the game works.

 Outdoors folks may not play, but a surprising amount sorta know what geocaching is. Buying a GPSr for hiking has ads often with packaging, with most  mentioning the hobby as "compatible with" in features/specs.  When we first started, people seeing you stop where most normally wouldn't got some questioning us back then. Some asked if we were orienteering as well.  Now, most don't give you a second look here.   

The rare time that someone wonders and asks,  I just call it "Geocaching, the biggest GPS location-based game"  and most do say, "oh, I hearda that...".    

[dastoryteller]

16 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

The rare time that someone wonders and asks,  I just call it "Geocaching, the biggest GPS location-based game"  and most do say, "oh, I hearda that...".

True that. Have you noticed people quit asking before Pokemon GO came out or mostly afterwards?

[+Viajero Perdido]

Are you familiar with this T-shirt-friendly phrase?

I use billion-dollar military satellites to find little boxes in the woods.  What do you do?

...if you're looking for a tagline. 

[dastoryteller]

15 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

I use billion-dollar military satellites to find little boxes in the woods.  What do you do?

Oh, I Love that!! Too funny. 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 3/15/2018 at 10:24 PM, dastoryteller said:

Thanks so much for all your input, I really appreciate it! I decided not to specifically say how many geocachers there are right now, but what I did say is this: "Geocaching.com bills it as “the world's largest treasure hunting game” with over 3 million geocaches in over 190 countries." with a citation at the end of the article for Geocaching.com. If anyone would like to read my article, please me know and I'll post the link. Thanks again!

That "190 countries" is a bit out of date.  According to to the project-gc "caches per area" page (https://project-gc.com/Statistics/CachesPerArea?submit=Filter) there is at least one cache in 247 countries.  That page indicates that there are just over 1 million caches in the U.S. 

Edited March 20, 2018 by NYPaddleCacher

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 3/17/2018 at 11:00 AM, dastoryteller said:

Thank you for your input cerberus1, niraD, and Viajero Perdido, you put into words what I felt, but couldn't put my finger on. You're entirely right about the connotations of the word 'treasure'. This is why I was kind of hoping that someone in the community might want to see my article before I turn it in. (I could post a Google docs link to the paper). I really do want to represent both the game and the players accurately. All I know is what I have read (here) about geocaching and the few experiences I have had personally.

A few years ago a couple of students from a nearby university contacted me and asked if I could do an interview about geocaching.  I told them that I would, but I'd also like to meet  them "in the field" so they could see for themselves how it was done.  I met them in a parking lot of a nearby park, selected one of my own hides, the hit the "Go to" button and handed the GPS to one of them.  After they found the cache, I asked them to sign the log, and told them where to go to log their first find online.  While we were there I added a few swag items to the cache and cleaned out some of the junk so they also experienced what a cache owner did to maintain a hide as well.  Coincidentally, the cache that I found was one that I had adopted from someone that left area a couple of years after I had started geocaching (in 2007) and it had been *my* first find as well.  

You might want to check the local geocache listings in your area, identify a couple of local geocachers (the "owner" of every cache is shown on the cache page) and see if  one of them would be willing to show you the ropes.  

[+The A-Team]

2 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

According to to the project-gc "caches per area" page (https://project-gc.com/Statistics/CachesPerArea?submit=Filter) there is at least one cache in 247 countries.

Although that list, which uses the same "countries" as on Geocaching.com, includes some duplicates as well as administrative regions that no longer exist.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

15 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Although that list, which uses the same "countries" as on Geocaching.com, includes some duplicates as well as administrative regions that no longer exist.

True.  I was going to mention that the geocaching list of countries/regions does not exactly match other authoritative country lists (the UN Geopolitical ontology or the ISO-3166 standard).  It's close enough but which ever list is used it's more than 190 countries, and for the purposes of the research project indicating that there are over 1 million geocaches in the world and that every country has at least one is probably sufficient.   It wasn't that long ago that there were a handful of countries which did not have a cache.  After the top 5 or so countries the number of caches per country drop off.  Number 6 on the list (Sweden) has around 116K, and by the time it gets to #48 (UAE) it's below 1000.  

[+speakers-corner]

On ‎16‎.‎03‎.‎2018 at 7:42 PM, Viajero Perdido said:

I prefer "hide and seek".

 

I use "electronic paper chase" when asked what geocaching is, then explain further.

[+hzoi]

4 hours ago, speakers-corner said:

"electronic paper chase"

"I'm trying to solve your puzzle cache, Professor Kingsfield, but I'm not getting anywhere.  Can you please at least add a checker to the page?"

"IT'S A D5 FOR A REASON."

[dastoryteller]

NYPaddlerCacher, The A-Team, speakers-corner, and hzoi, thank you for your input! Although I don't have any hides to my credit, I have found a few dozen caches, although none recently. (Going to school full time at my age is a full time job with no time off.  ) Your suggestion to contact a local cacher is a good one, but I wasn't planning on covering the ownership part of geocaching. I considered it, but my column was already a bit long and in order to do justice to the process of hiding a cache, there just wasn't going to be enough space. If I ever end up doing a research project on geocaching I will definitely use your suggestions!

The column I have to write is for a Natural Resources Interpretation class. I chose to write about Geocaching because I enjoy it (when I have the time and someone to go with), and I want to promote it to others who may not be familiar with it. I don't know if anyone, other than my instructor and his teaching assistants, will get to see it, but I wanted it to represent geocaching, and geocachers, as accurately as possible to the potential newbie's point of view.

That being said, I changed the original sentence to the following:

"Although the numbers vary according to what source you look at, it is probably safe to say that there are over 1 million caches worldwide which can be found in over 200 counties."

[+NYPaddleCacher]

9 hours ago, dastoryteller said:

That being said, I changed the original sentence to the following:

"Although the numbers vary according to what source you look at, it is probably safe to say that there are over 1 million caches worldwide which can be found in over 200 counties."

I think it would probably be safe to say that there over 1 million caches just in the U.S.  You could say:

"Although the numbers vary according to what source you look at, it is probably safe to say that  over 3 million caches have been placed worldwide which can be found in over 200 counties."

Edited March 22, 2018 by NYPaddleCacher

[+cerberus1]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 11:35 AM, dastoryteller said:

Have you noticed people quit asking before Pokemon GO came out or mostly afterwards?

No difference, really...  No longer doing roadside or parking lot things, most our caching is well into woods.  We haven't met anyone playing that game ourselves, nor had anyone ask us if we were playing while out.  Just not popular here as other areas I guess.  One of my nephews in college asked us about it once.  Said kids in town were playing a while, so it may be different for some the closer they get near towns/cities.    

[garyo1954]

55 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

No difference, really...  No longer doing roadside or parking lot things, most our caching is well into woods.  We haven't met anyone playing that game ourselves, nor had anyone ask us if we were playing while out.  Just not popular here as other areas I guess.  One of my nephews in college asked us about it once.  Said kids in town were playing a while, so it may be different for some the closer they get near towns/cities.    

Same here. I've tried messaging cache owners with little response.
I've asked the few that are involved and they have the same questions.

How many people in this county are involved in geocaching?
How many cache owners are there?

So last night I made a Facebook page "Geocaching in Anderson County, Texas."
It ain't much right now. Still needs a header, picture and content. But its a start at finding out answers.

I hope to complete an inventory of how many caches are in the county, how many are missing, how many are in disrepair.
Who the cache owners are (hopefully they will join the group)?
Who is searching for caches?
Once we know the problems, then we work on a solution.

These are the things I call local support. These are things that the owners who have abandoned caches lacked.  
Geocaching.com will get a dozen mentions a day if it draws interest I would like. The thing is Geocaching.com strength is managing a worldwide data base which makes it impossible for it to pinpoint the problems of each and every burg, city, and town where caches are placed.

 

Edited March 22, 2018 by garyo1954

[+noncentric]

On 3/22/2018 at 3:13 AM, NYPaddleCacher said:

On 3/21/2018 at 5:50 PM, dastoryteller said:

That being said, I changed the original sentence to the following:

"Although the numbers vary according to what source you look at, it is probably safe to say that there are over 1 million caches worldwide which can be found in over 200 counties."

I think it would probably be safe to say that there over 1 million caches just in the U.S.  You could say:

"Although the numbers vary according to what source you look at, it is probably safe to say that  over 3 million caches have been placed worldwide which can be found in over 200 counties."

Or use the factoids on geocaching.com's "Fast Facts" page (pasted below).  And make sure the typo in the sentence posted is corrected from "counties" to "countries".

I'd even suggest including a mention of "both urban and rural".

 

Geocaching by the numbers

• There are more than 3 million active geocaches worldwide.
• Geocaches are hidden in 191 different countries on all seven continents (even Antarctica)! 
• More than 642 million "Found it" and "Event Attended" logs have been recorded since the game started in 2000.
• Currently, there are over 361,000 geocache owners throughout the world. 
• Geocachers gather at over 36,000 events annually to share stories and play the game.
• There are more than 200 geocaching organizations around the world. 
• Geocaching.com is translated into 24 languages, Android and iOS apps are translated into over 20 languages.

 

[+noncentric]

On 3/16/2018 at 10:29 AM, niraD said:

Same here. I avoid using the phrase "treasure hunt" when describing geocaching. I prefer the term "scavenger hunt" because the things you're looking for in a scavenger hunt generally have no intrinsic value, the only value is in the experience of finding them. Using the term "treasure hunt" sets the wrong expectations, even if Groundspeak uses it in their promotional material.

Same here. I much prefer the "scavenger hunt" description.