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a black belt does not mean what it use. i can count on one hand the number of black belts that are still training from my original instructor.
pugpaws often quotes a black belt magazine article from the 60s that stated one out of less then 3% made it to a first degree black belt, and then a second degree was less.
as for the rest of your question there is no statistics kept on this subject anything we post would be a guess
Gee, IDK. It must be rather high especially in America. Probably more than half. And sadly half of those are possibly mcdojos, which is becoming a bigger problem.
It's all about the money. I've met child green belts who can't make a proper fist, or throw a proper punch.
Around the world it's probably divided differently.
Hmm, tough question. And something new :)
I honestly have no idea and I can only guess. And I think people would see it differently from different parts of the world. But if you just randomly ask 100 martial artist what they train I think it would look something like this:
TKD: 15%
Karate: 10%
Kung Fu (I'll put all chinese arts in one category): 15%
MMA: 5%
Muay Thai: 5%
BJJ: 5%
Boxing: 5%
Other Japanese martial arts: 10%
Rest: 30%
But honestly I have no idea. This is just at the top of my head and from what I can see. I'm probably WAAAY off.
From what i see, it seems like that is what most people know.
Lets guess globally.........
Hm....if we count everything inside....Wrestling has probably the most practitioners .. Endless types of folk and local types of wrestling, some of them very practical to train anywhere....don't need a dojo, a gym, wooden dummies, makiwara, punching bags, gloves, skin ropes, or any other similar equipment for many of those, great for the fields, many of them safe enough...
Globally is just different, you need to calculate otherwise.
I think many of you are way off on your numbers. I believe that at least in the U.S.A. that about 60 to 75% of all martial arts schools are teaching Taekwondo. That is a major difference from the way things were in the 1960's when I began training. I wish I could remember the statistics that Black Belt Magazine published in the 60". They printed a pie chart breakdown of the major styles. It did not have every style but broke things down something like, Karate, Judo, Kung-Fu, Taekwondo, and a category that consisted of all other styles. At that time I believe that Okinawan styles of karate was something like 34% of all styles taught in the U.S.A. Taekwondo was not very popular. Judo was a major thing in the 60's. Then in the early 1970's everything changed drastically and quickly. That was when the Kung-Fu movies craze started in the U.S.A. the publics interest in the martial arts exploded. Korea sent thousands of instructor to the U.S. and other countries to make money. Many got promotions way above what their rank was in Korea. But Westerners had no way to know that so they got ripped off. Contracts including Black belt contracts were started by the Korean schools. Promotions got easier and quicker. Children were being allowed to train for the first time. Then it all got worse as other styles began to pull the same McDojo crap. for those of you that don't know why Korean styles came to be the main group of styles now, consider this... Korean styles generally have the high and flashy kicks. People like the flashy techniques and are more interested in it than style with less flashy techniques. but the push was from the Korean Government.... Martial arts in Korea are controlled by the Korean Government. They sent many instructors out because they wanted to make money. Many were living here but working for people back in Korea. Some of the early pioneers of Korean arts lived in the Dojang because they could not afford to rent a place to live. Then over the next few years many broke away from their Korean controllers and went on their own. This was all explained in Black Belt Magazine many years ago.
...
It seems to me that no matter where I turn today every has at least one blackbelt in taekwando or karate. There is just a lot of those type of dojo's. How many of those are McDojo's God only knows. But if you go around the world and just randomly pick martial arts practitioners how would they be divided? Just based on what you've seen and heard.
I think 20% karate, 20% taekwando and the rest between different arts. What do you think?
