How many of us are there?

Well 10 million is a nice round number but we should round down to 9 because most people think we are ODD at best and some sick perverts as worst among those people that actually have seen an exploited edited appearance by a diaper lover on some rag scandal show, that rots people's brains and provokes and in flames people's bias against anything different than themselves or what they perceive as themselves.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

babymt said:

If it was 1-4% globally then that would be 70-280 million AB/DLs. We might be a bit more noticeable me thinks

Click to expand...

I completely agree.
Its all a guessing game but I have extreme doubts that the rate is anywhere approaching 1%. It is hardly possible to be more imo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

how many members are there here on ADISC?

33,545

Given the concentration of AB/DLs on the internet, not just ADISC but other sites too, it does feel like there are a lot of us on this planet. However, there are many other factors to take into consideration. Considering the population of the Earth is over 7 billion, even a seemingly small percentage would mean a lot of AB/DLs on this planet. One percent of this population is over 70 million people. That doesn't mean there are very few of us; there are certainly more of us than anybody would think. It's all relative to the scope.

You also need to take personality factors into account. On this site, there are DLs, there are AB/DLs, there are AB/DL supporters, there are normal people who are curious about AB/DL, and there are many other groups of people I have not/forgot mentioned on this site. AB/DL is one huge umbrella to which many people fall under and branch out.

Finally, there are the AB/DLs who remain in the closet for various reasons. I have been practising DL since middle school, but I did not post or say anything DL-related on the internet until earlier this year, mainly because of social stigma. When you calculate the number of AB/DLs on this planet, you need to add some percentage error to your total to compensate for those still in the closet. So to summarise, there can either be a lot of us or few of us; it is all relative to the size of the scope you look at the issue through.

A factor that I think is very important, when extrapolating data from within 'our' community to the global total, is the likely demographic variation due to cultural and economic influences. For example, many members of this forum are from the US and much of the analysis in the above posts is inherently US-centric, but there are twice as many people living in rural China than the whole of the US, many of whom will not have worn diapers as babies / children. Toilet training / EC often begins at a very early age and kāidāngkù (split pants) are only now giving way to diapers, which would surely exert some influence on the percentage takeup as adults. What about wealth and environmental factors, such as the ability to afford disposables (many of the world's population can't) or wash re-usables (where water is a precious commodity that has to be saved at all costs). What about communities that live, by desire or circumstance, with minimal privacy and living space?

It's an interesting question all right and some concerted research on a local level might get to within an order of magnitude, but whether the local data could be extrapolated internationally, I am not convinced.

Trevor said:

One in a thousand was the fairly common estimate for some time. Casey at ABU thinks it is higher and he's in a better position to know than most of us. I have no problem believing that 1-4% might be using diapers or even be potentially interested in ABU's products since they're good. I still have a hard time buying the notion that there's that many of us. I'd believe 0.5% without much trouble. Maybe 1% if you include all those who have the inclination and don't pursue it with the same kind of vigor we do here. I'd be very interested to see if it were higher but it seems unlikely.

Click to expand...

I'm with Trevor on this. Most people who wear diapers like the ones that ABU sells, wear them for medical reasons. Their most likely client, is a person who expects a diaper to actually LOOK like a diaper, and be CALLED a diaper, rather than a "brief". I've gotta hand it to ABU for their honesty in calling a spade a spade. Half the reason I get put off with the Dry 24/7 "briefs", is that's what they are called. I, along with a lot of other folks with special needs, are sick and tired of the euphemisms. So we tend to gravitate towards the likes of Bambino instead of Covidien. I just know the product works, and I actually like the looks of the Bellissimo taping panel because it doesn't look condescending like those Depend Real-Fits do.

Absolutely it's cultural. I would imagine that to an extent it is also dependant on priority of needs. If I were living in poverty and struggling to feed my family, perhaps my urge for this would never exist, or significantly be diminished? Is fetish in general more prevalent in the first world? Very very interesting!

Remember that AB/DL is a heavily stigmatised and almost-never-discussed kink except in 'persistent anonymity' communities like this one, meaning that a true number may seem, at first glance, unrealistically high.