HermanHiddema wrote:I don't either, but I'm more specifically talking about 80% of the "active playing population". I think we agree that for every player in the EGD there's probably at least ten that "learned the rules". I just wouldn't count most of those as active.
Yes, taking the KGS rating repartition and applying it to the whole inactive population looks unreasonable to me.
Another data point for France:
Census: 20000
EGD: 5300
Took his licence for 2015: 1400 (source: French Federation)
The last number excludes some players of all strength levels (that play locally, don't go to tournaments and choose not to take their licence), so it would be a conservative estimate for the active population. It's still probably closer than EGD in my opinion (depending on your definition of "active").
I have trouble to see what the first number could refer to. I would say it is too low for "having been exposed to the game once". It might be reasonable for "having entered a go club at least once".