Your Best Guess?

[Liam]

Here in Calgary, Alberta, I suspect the number is also small. Jock, since you didn't exclude Scottish country Dancers or members of St. Andrews societies, and organizers of highland games and Burns suppers, then I think you could look at the male membership of these organizations as a proxy for the # of males who possibly own kilts. In Canada, approximately 15% of the population claim to have Scottish heritage. I would doubt if 1% of those own a kilt, and if they do wear it only to the annual Burns supper. I regularly wear a kilt and it is rare to meet another kilted gent.

[Geoff Withnell]

Sir William.

I suspect you are seriously underestimating the number of at least occasional kilt wearers. .0001 would be 1 in a million. The current population of my home state (Maryland) is about 6 million. There are more than a dozen Marylanders in XMARKS. In my department at work, comprised of several hundred, guesstimating 200 men, we have 5 men who put on a kilt last Tartan Day, which I admit is probably high for the general population. We had 17 kilt-wearers in the agency as a whole, which would be very roughly .5 percent. it is likely that there are kilt wearing men who either did not get the message, or chose not to wear the kilt to work in a fairly conservative organization.

Based on my very unscientific observation, I'd say the percentage of kilt wearers in the US is very, very small, even if you were to include those who are members of pipe bands. My guess would be .0001% and I suspect that is overly generous. On a daily basic I rarely ever see anyone kilted. Most times I only see kilts at the various Celtic games and festivals (including Renaissance fairs), the occasional parade (to include those for St Patrick's Day), and Burns' and St Andrews dinners.

That said, in early January our local SAMS* post held it's annual holiday dinner at Medieval Madness in Alexandria, VA. The theme is that of Tudor England and, as it was a post event, we wore kilts. To our surprise we were not the only kilt-wearers in attendance. There were also three others (two proudly wearing "Irish" themed shirts). But we were only 8 out of perhaps 100 males present, and to my best recollection, this is the only time in the last year I've seen anyone in a kilt outside the aforementioned "Celtic" events.

* Scottish-American Military Society

[Jock Scot]

Yes Nathan in the UK its called "deer stalking". It is a major pastime in the Highlands and money earner, and very popular in the rest of the UK. Just google "deer stalking Scotland" and click on images to give you an idea.

[Father Bill]

Okay Jock, so we have "shooting," "hunting" and "deer stalking" as three very separate activities; any other similars?

[Phil]

Before this thread goes completely off-course I would imagine the numbers of men who actually own their own kilt in this part of Scotland is pretty low, perhaps no more than 5 or 10 in a hundred and full-time kilt wearers could be counted on the fingers of one finger! I would be lucky to see one a month in Edinburgh -apart from kilt shop staff and the odd hotel doorman.
I am about to kilt up and dance the night away and the same for the next 4 nights so a good New Year to everyone when it comes!

[Jock Scot]

Okay Jock, so we have "shooting," "hunting" and "deer stalking" as three very separate activities; any other similars?

If I understand your question correctly, we also have rough shooting,driven shooting,wildfowling,upland shooting, low ground shooting, shooting over dogs(setters or pointers), clay target shooting, target rifle shooting, foot packs, mounted packs, fell packs, stag hunting(with hounds), beagling( hunting the hare with hounds on foot) , harriers(hunting the hare with hounds on horseback), mink hunting,drag hunting(the hounds follow an atificial trail), ferreting. To complicate things even more, not all dogs are dogs, oh dear me no! Some dogs are hounds and to call them otherwise will cause apoplexy among some circles! Just so you know hunting is a hot topic within the UK and some 10 years ago legislation was passed to curb some aspects of hunting. It is probably best that I go no further on that particular subject!

It should be noted that some shoot and even try to deer stalk whilst kilted, but on the whole the kilt is not the best attire for these activities.

[Father Bill]

Thanks Jock! Fascinating the way language is used. If you ever come to Canada... I'll try to find a cottage for you to stay in!

[MacLowlife]

I live in the American Southeast, where populations were stable for most of the 20th century and ethnic diversity means you have Huguenot AND Scots-Irish ancestors. I belong to a Scottish Heritage organization of some 200 men. I do not know, but I believe the total number of men in similar societies nearby amounts to a thousand. I am guessing most of the kilt-owning population belongs to one of these kilt-affinity groups. Only about half of the men in my group own kilts, but I suspect the other organizations have a higher percentage. Since I have guessed at the first number, I will guess at the second and offer 1000 as the number of kilt owning men in South Carolina, which has a population of 4.75 million.
One in 4.75 thousand people?

The US Census number for 2012 is roughly 314 million. Figures do not lie, but liars figure. Extrapolating South Carolina's Kilted One Thousand per 4.75 into the US 314, I reckon the speculative kilted male population of the Republic to be 66 thousand.

[WillowEstate]

I suppose someone has to take a wild guess for Australia! I would imagine Victoria, NSW and SA would have more than up here in QLD, if only on the basis I've actually seen one or two in Sydney and Melbourne! For QLD, population 8 million or so, I'd think one in a million, two at the very most would be about right, leaving aside the pipe bands and the Ipswich festival.

Any suggestions from further south?

[Nathan]

If I understand your question correctly, we also have rough shooting,driven shooting,wildfowling,upland shooting, low ground shooting, shooting over dogs(setters or pointers), clay target shooting, target rifle shooting, foot packs, mounted packs, fell packs, stag hunting(with hounds), beagling( hunting the hare with hounds on foot) , harriers(hunting the hare with hounds on horseback), mink hunting,drag hunting(the hounds follow an atificial trail), ferreting. Just so you know hunting is a hot topic within the UK and some 10 years ago legislation was passed to curb some aspects of hunting. It is probably best that I go no further on that particular subject!

It should be noted that some shoot and even try to deer stalk whilst kilted, but on the whole the kilt is not the best attire for these activities.

Here it's called "shooting" if there's a target or clay pigeon involved and "hunting" if there's a live animal involved. You can get specific, duck hunting, deer hunting, moose hunting, bird hunting, but you need not. In Eastern Canada, it's not done on horse back. ATV (All terrain vehicle) maybe, but not horseback.

Lots of guys will have a dog with them for hunting, especially a retriever if they are hunting ducks, but I don't think anyone hunts with packs of dogs.

By our parlance, I shoot but don't hunt.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled kilt statistics thread...