# of magicians in the world

[Guest]

Hi people always ask me how many magicians are in the world. There are more then 6 billion people on the earth and I assume about 1-2% know magic, and I dont mean 21 card trick or someone who bought a invisble deck for a magic store when they were in vegas or something. i mean know the history, psychology, misdirection and art of magic. I think if you take 1000 people and line them up and say how many people here can play basketball or any sport. I would say at least 800 people who raise their hand. THen ask them how many people here can create miracles, a sense of astonishment, take be back to being a child, make people dream, how many people here can do the art of magic, i would say at least 50-100 or maybe less would raise their hand. This is what I believe correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks
Amir

[Sean Piper]

Originally posted by amir ghasri:
... There are more then 6 billion people on the earth and I assume about 1-2% know magic, ... I think if you take 1000 people and line them up ... how many people here can do the art of magic, i would say at least 50-100 or maybe less would raise their hand.

I would assume even less, and you somewhat contradict yourself by first stating 1%-2% and then using 10% in your example.

I expect the real figure would be closer to maybe 0.25%

[Guest]

yea i realized that, my bad :p , I think .25% is about right, and it shows what a secretive art it is, and why people love magic because barely anyone on earth can do it. less then 1%.

Thanks
Amir

[CHRIS]

I think you guys are way way off with your estimate. I think that there are perhaps 30,000 to 50,000 magicians worldwide.

MAGIC magazine has about 11,000 subscribers. The IBM has a membership of 14,000. 0.25% of 6 billion is 15 million. No way there are that many magicians. No way. There is simply no way. Look at any sales numbers of books, videos or tricks. Even the best selling tricks didn't sell more than 50,000 copies.

[Jerry Harrell]

There are 37,343 magicians in the world. Next question.

[Guest]

I agree with Chris. His facts and figures are accurate. When you're talking about people who actually have a working knowledge of the art of magic the figure is very low. Then when you're talking about folks who actually make their living from magic the figure is lower still. Look at the Genii Forum itself. Just over 2600 registrants in the nearly two years it has been around. That averages to 3.5 magicians registering aday and this is the most widely read magic forum in the the world.

Pat yourself on the back. You belong to a very elite group.

[Bill Mullins]

Other points of reference:

David Stone sold 17,000 copies each of his tapes in France alone. These are fairly advanced tapes, but were marketed to laypeople on French television

Huntsville, AL has 200,000 - 250,000 in it's "metropolitan" area, but only 50 or so magicians (and most of those are dabblers/lurkers at club meetings -- only a dozen or so perform with any regularity).

[Guest]

jerry how do you know there are 37,343 magicians, i think there are approx 40,000- 45,000 in the world which shows what a secretive and beatiful piece of art magic is because people love magic because they dont see it every day or will perhaps never see it

[CHRIS]

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
David Stone sold 17,000 copies each of his tapes in France alone. These are fairly advanced tapes, but were marketed to laypeople on French television.

Correct - 'laypeople'! I am sure a large fraction bought out of curiosity and never did anything with it besides watching it once. These people do not fall under Amir's definition of magician. They most likely will not become magicians.

Chris Wasshuber
preserving magic & gambling one book at a time.

[Jerry Harrell]

Amir, I'm sorry, I was being flippant. I apologize.

[Guest]

Hi Jerry,

I thought it was a very funny answer. :p

www.JeffEzellMAGIC.com

[Pete Biro]

I don't have the count... but there are TOO MANY... :whack:

[Guest]

TOO many, you think 40-50,000 people out of 6 billion plus is too many, I dont really? There is probably less then 100,000 magicians in the world. And when i say magicians it includes mentalist and not people who know the 21 card trick. They have to know the art.

[Guest]

Theres at least 10,000 magicians in the world or at least that's as many posts as there are in this forum as of tonight.

[Guest]

Over 200,000 ITRs were sold, and I doubt if each magician bought 10 or 20, so there are probably 50,000 plus. :rolleyes:

[Matthew Field]

I can think of about 30, so perhaps there are 100.

Many practitioners, damn few magicians.

Matt Field