What % of the population are flashlightholics?

How many are out there? I have only met one other and was curious as to what you guys thought. Also, was the term flashlightoholic coined here? If so who was it? Just curious and thanks.

Taken from the front page of CPF:
[h=3]CandlePowerForums Statistics[/h] Threads: 250,253
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Just for fun let's assume every member on CPF is from the US. With the US population at roughly 300 million, CPFers are 0.00057% of the US population. With active members it's 0.000032%. We are a niche community.

But CPF numbers are just those who have found CPF; I think the number would be at least 1% if you were to set up a serious flashlight kiosk in a mall, for example..

Most users of CPF never sign up, it is seen as a source.

I am a member of a very large motorcycle community website and it is still small. This must be tiny. The funny thing is? Any time I see a light pop up for sale, it's snapped up quickly. Seems to be quite a loyal bunch. Similar to the riding community.

Wow, its a smaller group than I thought

There is certainly a large group of people that would be flashoholics if they could get their first "fix". I know a number of people with lots of cheap toy lights, but they have nothing truly useful, and they certainly don't obsess about them. I would consider them "high risk". I have never met anyone else that truly is addicted.

I've worked with a lot of people. And I would guess its like 10%. It's just not what people talk about. OK how many times have people asked you about your light. They're flashaholics, they just haven't found us yet.

Haha, this reminds me of those threads that sometimes pop up asking what percentage of the population has a foot fetish. These things are hard to guestimate because there's not a lot of data to go by, but some have put the former at around 15%-20%. The percentage of flashaholics is probably much lower, I'd be surprised if it exceeds 0.1%. I've found that most people can appreciate a good illumination tool where it is needed, and most people I've shown my lights to have been impressed; but I have yet to come across anyone who've developed an enthusiasm for flashlights on par with what one would expect from a flashaholic. I've been able to convince many close friends and family of the usefulness of having a quality illumination tool, and some have even started carrying a small flashlight, but still nothing close to what I'd call flashlight enthusiasts. This is, and always will be, a very small niche. The best we can hope for is to be guiding beacons of light (so to speak lol), and raise awareness of better illumination tools than what Joe Average is accustomed to. And that is where our expertise in this niche will pay off. It's always a good feeling to send someone off with a better tool, knowing they are now better equipped and better prepared for whatever task they have at hand.