# Age of speedcubing community



## sneaklyfox (Sep 8, 2012)

Curious to know what it's like exactly. I know it's mostly young, but still interesting to see.


----------



## Cubic (Sep 8, 2012)

From what I've seen, there are a lot of younger people here.

I fear I am one of the older ones. (And one of the slower!)


----------



## ThomasJE (Sep 8, 2012)

I think the majority age would be 15-24.


----------



## Stefan (Sep 8, 2012)

The 5689 people who competed in 2012 (my arbitrary characterization of active community members) are now on average 19.29 years old.


```
SELECT count(*), avg(datediff(now(),year*10000+month*100+day))/365.25
FROM Persons, (SELECT distinct personId FROM Results, Competitions WHERE Competitions.id=competitionId and year=2012) tmp
WHERE Persons.id=personId and year and month and day
```

And their distribution (can someone plot it?):

```
age   number
3	2
4	5
5	9
6	15
7	19
8	26
9	37
10	75
11	139
12	249
13	315
[COLOR="#FF0000"]14	481
15	557
16	535     these make
17	472     up 51%
18	430
19	433[/COLOR]
20	384
21	304
22	227
23	164
24	124
25	89
26	78
27	46
28	43
29	46
30	31
31	24
32	29
33	16
34	31
35	17
36	23
37	17
38	11
39	11
40	18
41	19
42	19
43	15
44	15
45	9
46	9
47	8
48	10
49	11
50	6
51	5
52	4
53	5
54	5
55	4
56	2
57	1
58	2
59	3
65	2
69	1
76	1
82	1

SELECT floor(datediff(now(),year*10000+month*100+day)/365.25), count(*)
FROM Persons, (SELECT distinct personId FROM Results, Competitions WHERE Competitions.id=competitionId and year=2012) tmp
WHERE Persons.id=personId and year and month and day
GROUP BY floor(datediff(now(),year*10000+month*100+day)/365.25)
LIMIT 100
```


----------



## Cubic (Sep 8, 2012)

Mmmm, SQL. That brings back memories of my database building days.

I am more than twice the mean age.

Stephan, can you calculate the median and mode? I think the mode would be more relevant here as people of my age skew the mean!


----------



## Stefan (Sep 8, 2012)

For the mode, check out the distribution I added above. Median seems to be 17, though not close to 18 and I think I computed that almost exactly half were 18 or older recently when we discussed Las Vegas and thus I'm a bit surprised but not enough to go search for those posts...

Edit: Oh well, don't know why I used the rounded ages for the median. Median is 17.82 years (still confused why it's not about 18.00 like I remember).


```
SELECT (datediff(now(),year*10000+month*100+day))/365.25 age
FROM Persons, (SELECT distinct personId FROM Results, Competitions WHERE Competitions.id=competitionId and year=2012) tmp
WHERE Persons.id=personId and year and month and day
ORDER BY age
LIMIT 2845
```

Edit 2: Alright, I remembered I said Mexico and that's a good search term:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...saligned-sides&p=750265&viewfull=1#post750265
Running that old query again, it's not balanced anymore, it's 2645 vs 3044 now...


----------



## SpeedSolve (Sep 8, 2012)

I'm 13. I'll be 14 in 56 days.


----------



## 5BLD (Sep 8, 2012)

14, 15 ina few weeks


----------



## PandaCuber (Sep 8, 2012)

5BLD said:


> 14, 15 ina few weeks



I thought you were older.

17


----------



## Dene (Sep 9, 2012)

Cubic said:


> Stephan



Rawr. Come on oldster, I'm sure you haven't lost your eyesight yet


----------



## 5BLD (Sep 9, 2012)

PandaCuber said:


> I thought you were older.



Everyone does, until they see me irl.


----------



## Stefan (Sep 9, 2012)

Stefan said:


> The 5689 people who competed in 2012 (my arbitrary characterization of active community members) are now on average 19.29 years old.



Did that again, split by gender:

Ladies: 511, average age 18.89 (median is 17.89, mode is 15)
Gentlemen: 5186, average age 19.33 (median is 17.82, mode is 15)


----------



## ThomasJE (Sep 9, 2012)

Stefan said:


> And their distribution (can someone plot it?):
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



I'll get the pic up soon.


----------



## Rune (Sep 9, 2012)

Stefan said:


> Did that again, split by gender:
> 
> Ladies: 511, average age 18.89 (median is 17.89, mode is 15)
> Gentlemen: 5186, average age 19.33 (median is 17.82, mode is 15)



How explain the difference - 511+5186>5689? I should have expected the opposite; not all are known by gender.


----------



## Stefan (Sep 9, 2012)

Rune said:


> How explain the difference - 511+5186>5689? I should have expected the opposite; not all are known by gender.



It's because since yesterday, a few more people were added to the database. It's now 5697 instead of yesterday's 5689 (which btw means that of these recently competing people, we do have gender for everyone).


----------



## Rune (Sep 9, 2012)

Stefan said:


> It's because since yesterday, a few more people were added to the database. It's now 5697 instead of yesterday's 5689 (which btw means that of these recently competing people, we do have gender for everyone).



So we do have the gender for Zhouma, China?


----------



## Stefan (Sep 9, 2012)

Rune said:


> So we do have the gender for Zhouma, China?



Man, you're good, you notice everything . No, we don't have it. I forgot that because I did something age-related, I only considered people whose birth date we have. And we don't have Zhuoma's birth date. So I must correct myself: Of all the people who competed in 2012 and whose birth date we have, we also have the gender. Thanks.


----------



## IamWEB (Sep 9, 2012)

Stefan said:


> Did that again, split by gender:
> 
> Ladies: 511, average age 18.89 (median is 17.89, mode is 15)
> Gentlemen: 5186, average age 19.33 (median is 17.82, mode is 15)



Wow, I was exactly the male median age shortly before Nationals.

Interesting seeing how each statistic is progressively lower. Cubers who have been around for years are bringing the average age up, but the the exponentially(?) increasing amount of cubers are young. Therefore, the mode age is over 4 years younger.

/Analysis


----------



## Selkie (Sep 11, 2012)

I am actually surprised by the proportion of sup 40 solvers in the poll. It somehow justifies my 'grey-haired' hobby somewhat


----------



## TMOY (Sep 11, 2012)

Not that surprising considering that many of them are people who started in the 80s. I'm 41 now and I got my first cube in 1980.


----------



## Stefan (Sep 11, 2012)

Right... assuming most cubers in 1981 were 14-19 years as well, they're now 45-50.


----------



## Selkie (Sep 11, 2012)

Very good point TMOY. I got my first cube during the craze in 1980/81 when I must have been about 11 as still in Primary School and 42 now.

Certainly at UK comps recently the proportion of sup 40 solvers is lower than this poll.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Sep 11, 2012)

The poll is obviously skewed - those of us who are older are more interested in the poll. But Stefan is right - it looks like the cube may have been most popular among the same age group in 1981 as it is now. I was 18 (almost 19) when I got my first cube.


----------



## Stefan (Sep 11, 2012)

Mike Hughey said:


> The poll is obviously skewed - those of us who are older are more interested in the poll.



Or older people are simply more active on the internet. Yeah, that must be it.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Sep 11, 2012)

Stefan said:


> Or older people are simply more active on the internet. Yeah, that must be it.



 Okay, yeah, it's pure speculation.

It's interesting to compare this poll to an earlier one:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?30535-What-s-Your-Age

Perhaps the title "Age of speedcubing community" appeals to old people more than does the title "What's Your Age"?

(It's so much fun to pointlessly speculate...)


----------



## Stefan (Sep 11, 2012)

Mike Hughey said:


> Okay, yeah, it's pure speculation.



Just in case it wasn't clear: my comment was not criticism of yours but just a joke, as I think generally younger people are more tech-savvy and active on the web.


----------



## Mike Hughey (Sep 11, 2012)

I wasn't sure - it could have really been either criticism or a joke; either way, it was funny. I do think the title might actually have something to do with it. Somehow, "Age of speedcubing community" to me conjures up a picture of doddering old folks sitting in rocking chairs solving cubes.


----------



## Schmidt (Sep 11, 2012)

My son saw one of those rocking chair solvers when he was a paper-boy(talking of old people; anyone remember that game?)


----------



## Pokerizer (Sep 12, 2012)

33 with the mind of a 19 year old and the body if a 60 year old


----------



## Kattenvriendin (Sep 15, 2012)

One of the oldies here.. 40 in a few months lol


----------



## moralsh (Sep 27, 2012)

Kattenvriendin said:


> One of the oldies here.. 40 in a few months lol



Same here if you consider eight and a half months a few


----------



## ketchuphater999 (Oct 2, 2012)

11, 12 in december


----------



## Cheese11 (Oct 3, 2012)

I'm 16.


----------



## wasianrubiks (Oct 5, 2012)

I'm almost 15 so i guess i fit in with the crowd somewhat


----------

