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Demographics of geocachers


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I was away from geocaching for a few months -- it was a long, hard winter. Now I am back, using the redesigned GC site. I notice that there are new graphics and videos that seem to show exclusively twenty-something models. Yet I could count on the fingers of one hand the cachers I have met who are under thirty -- not counting children caching with adults. (If you take your kids, or someone else's kids, geocaching, I applaud you.)

 

So I was wondering: has anyone ever created a statistical picture of geocachers? Some grad student in outdoor recreation management, maybe? This is not hugely important, but I wondered.

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1 hour ago, chasclifton said:

I was away from geocaching for a few months -- it was a long, hard winter. Now I am back, using the redesigned GC site. I notice that there are new graphics and videos that seem to show exclusively twenty-something models. Yet I could count on the fingers of one hand the cachers I have met who are under thirty -- not counting children caching with adults. (If you take your kids, or someone else's kids, geocaching, I applaud you.)

 

So I was wondering: has anyone ever created a statistical picture of geocachers? Some grad student in outdoor recreation management, maybe? This is not hugely important, but I wondered.

That's hilarious. You make a good point! One of the models I see often is the one with long hair and a tie dye shirt. He's of the older generation.

 

The only way I can think of determining these demographics would be a survey.  

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Around here there's a good spread of ages, with probably the most around the 30-40 range with young families and a bunch of us older retirees. Locally we had a couple of very active cachers who started in their mid teens, but are now in their early twenties and too busy with university studies and all the other distractions that come with that time of life to do much caching. This group photo from a recent Geocaching New South Wales event is a good indicator:

 

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51 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

One of the models I see often is the one with long hair and a tie dye shirt. He's of the older generation.

 

That's no model - it's Monkeybrad, one of the most recognizable and well-known geocachers in the USA, if not the world.

 

Apart from rare examples like that where a Community Volunteer is featured in a website ad, many of the other "models" are Lackeys who work for Geocaching HQ.  Many of them tend to be in a younger demographic.

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1 minute ago, Keystone said:

 

That's no model - it's Monkeybrad, one of the most recognizable and well-known geocachers in the USA, if not the world.

 

Apart from rare examples like that where a Community Volunteer is featured in a website ad, many of the other "models" are Lackeys who work for Geocaching HQ.  Many of them tend to be in a younger demographic.

 

What's the average age of the reviewers? I'm guessing they are 40+ years old. 

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1 hour ago, Keystone said:

 

That's no model - it's Monkeybrad, one of the most recognizable and well-known geocachers in the USA, if not the world.

 

Apart from rare examples like that where a Community Volunteer is featured in a website ad, many of the other "models" are Lackeys who work for Geocaching HQ.  Many of them tend to be in a younger demographic.

I knew that! But he's modeling a tie dye shirt. Haha.

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This topic has been brought up a number of times. If you'd like to read through the unofficial numbers, you can try any of these links - 

My personal impression, which is reflected fairly well in these threads, is that the average cacher is a 40-year-old male. Groundspeak has been criticized here a number of times for their pattern of attempting to appeal more to new users rather than creating a better experience for the ones they've got. I'm thinking that the demographics displayed in their advertising material are just a reflection of that mentality, though I can't blame them for using younger faces to attract users. The strategy isn't exactly unheard of.  

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Thanks. I have to admit that I was not reading this forum fourteen years ago, but kudos to those who were.

 

All the joking aside, my intuition is that whose who participate in forum discussions are in the older group . . . on average . I cannot speak to participation in events.

Edited by chasclifton
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Sorry, I'm one of the old guys (girls). 

Only been to one event here so far, but it was mostly older people as well. In my old home it was mostly (with 2-3 exception) somewhat older ones as well. I guess now we old ones all strive to look like the lackeys ??

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Around here (Western NY - pretty much as far west as you can go in NY without being in Canada) I'd say that the average age is somewhere between 40 and 60.  I can only think of a handful of cachers I've met that are younger than 40, but I know several that are in their 70's.  (Long cold winters make for a hardy group of individuals not afraid to look for a micro in the woods under 3' of snow... and that's in May!)

I can only think of a few newer cachers I've met at local events - most that go to events have been in the game as long as we have (2011) or longer.  Of course, it is entirely probable that the younger cachers don't go to events.

 

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11 hours ago, Keystone said:

 

That's no model - it's Monkeybrad, one of the most recognizable and well-known geocachers in the USA, if not the world. 

 

I did a puzzle cache that he had a hand in.  In one of the parts (it had a lot of parts) of the puzzle several files are uncovered,  including what appears to be a travel flyer that is advertising a variety of products from well known outdoor companies.   Looking closer at the flyer, and a photo of a couple of  people in front of a waterfall, I notice that one of them bears a striking resemblance to Monkeybrad.  

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My impression is that most social geocachers are in the 30-70 range, but I'm willing to bet there are many younger geocachers who aren't actively as involved in the community. I'm thinking that the younger demographic are certainly more urban, while the ones who share and gather and communicate are of the older (and -ish) generations.  Families are fairly common - young adults with young children. But teenagers?  They are either non-existent, or are visible in their own social networks :P Age visibility I think is primarily in the 30+ range, and likely more heavily in the 40+ range.

 

It would certainly be interesting to see some analytics of geocaching activity and estimated age ranges; but a lot of that data isn't readily available (family accounts for example don't indicate individual ages, let alone do single accounts).  Conducting a poll would gather info from active users, which doesn't help address the 'invisible' geocacher users' information.

 

So my impression is pretty much entirely based on who I see locally, and the amount of (visible) social media activity and ages I infer from there... so take it with a grain of salt, heh.

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1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

My impression is that most social geocachers are in the 30-70 range, but I'm willing to bet there are many younger geocachers who aren't actively as involved in the community. I'm thinking that the younger demographic are certainly more urban, while the ones who share and gather and communicate are of the older (and -ish) generations.  Families are fairly common - young adults with young children. 

That's pretty much what I have noticed too. 

When I lived in Lithuania, most event attendees were in their mid/late 20s with only a couple veteran cachers in their 40s/50s. However, there's also lots of teenagers who are what I call seasonal cachers, they just don't come to events.

When I moved to Canada, it was completely opposite - the absolute majority were seniors and middle age cachers, with some exceptions of young families or people in their 20s (myself including). 

I think it has to do something of how popular geocaching is in the country - in Lithuania it's still somehow of a new hobby and young tech-savvy people are more likely to know about it. In places where it's been popular for almost two decades, average cacher age would be much higher, I think.

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I would love to get some data on this, though I don't think it's something that the website collects. I have seen and know young cachers, and I have met a lot of older cachers. The older makes sense - they are at or approaching retirement, kids are out of the house, and they have time and money to spare. Well, time anyway. But yes, I'd love to see the distribution, and even break that down geographically.

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In a decade of caching, starting in my late 20s, I would say the majority of the geo-community are in the 50-75 range. Retired or closing in on it, kids are out of the house or close to it. Which is typical of most hobbies in Florida.

 

However, I suspect geocacher demographics don't reflect the geocaching community demographics. The age distribution is less lopsided when you factor in all the people who never attend events, hide few or no caches, and may not even log their finds online.

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