Popularity

In the overall scheme of things, how popular are the martial arts?

[from the Center for Disease Control]

from Johann & Sandra's Web we get this correlation of data on worldwide sports involvement:

Budo

In Japan (population 127 million). Data from the 1997 White Paper on Leisure, issued by the Leisure Development Center, indicates that adults who regularly engage in judo, kendo, karate, etc., as a leisure pastime have fallen slightly, from 3.4 million in 1988, to 3.1 million in 1996 or roughly 2.4% of the population. To a large degree, however, these figures reflect the nation's demographics (the percentage of young people relative to the overall population is declining), and do not necessarily indicate a drop off in interest. Due to such factors as movies, novels and women's increased interest in self-defense, budo has not yet lost its popularity. Martial Arts in Japan..

Martial Arts

The Martial Arts Industry Association based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma reports:
[Note tha U.S. population is 281 million as of the last census]

Industry Statistics
(U.S. Industry estimates for 2000 for participants 6 years or older)

Number of martial arts schools (as listed in the Yellow Pages
as of January 1, 2001; includes YMCAs and community centers)
12,893

Number of participants in martial arts in 2000 and 1999
5.7 million in 2000 and 5.5 million in 1999 [about 2% of the total population]

Number of participants who selected this activity as their favorite
2.2 million or 38% of total participants

Average # Days Participation in Last 12 Months
65.7 days [so on average this lists people who are training once a week? I doubt it. How the keeners at the dojo 5 times a week and what about those who go for a month and never again? Perhaps the serious trainers - the ones that keep the sport going are the 2.2 million who rate it as their favourite activity - thus putting participation at a more realistic 0.8%]

Number of participants by gender
Male 3.7 million
Female 2.0 million

Number of participants by age
6-11 1.539 million
12-17 1.107 million
18-24 0.781 million
25-34 0.893 million
35-44 0.764 million
45-54 0.543 million
54-64 0.069 million
65+ 0.025 million

Number of participants by household income
Under $15,000 19.7%
$15,000 - $24,999 06.8%
$25,000 - $34,999 30.8%
$35,000 - $49,999 13.6%
$50,000 - $74,999 09.3%
$75,000+ 19.8%

Number of participants by market size
Non-metro 0.969 million
100K - 499K 0.599 million
500K - 1.999M 1.174 million
2M+ 2.979 million

Number of participants by education (18+ years old)
H.S./Less 1.107 million
In College Now 0.371 million
1-3 Yrs College 0.575 million
College Grad. 0.645 million
Adv Degree 0.378 million

Information furnished by SGMA.

So that's the Martial Arts breakdown. How do the various styles compete for market share? Quite simply no hard figures exist. Claims of popularity abound. The WTF makes claims of more than 50 million practitioners in over 150 countries. Although some would say 165 countries. But a general concensus emerges that karate [largely Shotokan], Judo, and TaeKwonDo are the front runners for popularity. There will, of course, be huge regional disparaties with some arts being completely dominant in one area and almost non-existant in other areas. Kind estimates are that 4% of the American population practices marital arts of any kind, but say that's pie-in-the-sky high end. Link.

As a side note Tec notes, rather accurately I think -

I've read the posts discussing which MA is more popular, TKD or Karate, and I guess the point is still to figure out why TKD is in the Olympics and Karate is not.

Maybe this is too obvious but the reason why TKD is an Olympic sport is because in 1988 when the Olympics were in Korea, Korea designated TKD as it's "demonstration" sport. To be designated a demonstration sport has little to do with worldwide popularity and everything to do with what sport the host country decides upon. It has a great deal to do with choosing a sport that somehow represents the culture of the host country. I remember in one winter Olympics where the country (I forget which) designated curling to be their demonstration sport. Not to denigrate curling, but who paricipates in that sport worldwide? Now, if the IOC decides, based on whatever criteria after whatever period of evaluation, that the demonstration sport should be an official medal sport it then becomes an official Olympic sport. With TKD, I doubt that one of the concerns with its acceptance was that the thousands (millions?) of Karate practitioners worldwide would feel dissed. I'm sure having a centralized world governing body with representatives in many countrys and a unified set of rules helps this process. Maybe, a grass roots sort of effort to have Karate included as a demonstration sport in on of the upcoming Olympics will help get the process moving if thats what people in this forum want. As far as popularity is concerned, it seems that the principal concern is not necessarly how many people worldwide participate. For instance, Stephie mentions the hammer and discuss throws to illustrate how silly the Olympics are for including events that only, maybe, a couple thousand people worldwide participate in. Track & Field, however, which encompasses the hammer and discus throws is the single most popular sport in the Olympics in terms of spectator attendance, Olympic participants, and interest. Even here in the U.S.A., Track and Field is synonomous with the Olympic Games even if it disappears from consiousness for the four years between Olympics.

We can conclude that the martial arts per se occupy a very small niche in the North American sports/recreation market. I would suggest that it exists because it offers unique qualities not found in the much more readily available alternatives.