What percentage of U.S. kids have been to Disney?

[KirstenB]

Yeah, when I think about all the kids at dd's school, my percentage would be something like 10-15%. This is a very middle class school.

 

[Jockaroo]

Growing up, only one of my friends went to Disney. Her grandmother lived near Orlando and the family went to visit at Christmas one year. My friend got to spend a day at Epcot. I still have the postcard she sent me. I grew up in a rural Tennessee area. The people I knew who went on vacation typically went to Myrtle Beach every year. Many families who didn't go to the beach would take their time off and visit any relatives that lived out of state. Big family vacations just didn't happen in my area. I always thought it would be cool to go to Disney, but knew it was something only "the rich folks" could do. I never even mentioned wanting to go to my parents. In my eyes, a trip to the moon would be equally obtainable. As an adult, I've been fortunate to visit both US parks.

For the people I've been around as an adult, most of these families who choose to do the Disney family trip do it only as an obligation to their children.

 

[disney4us2002]

Like Alice, I'm curious about the numbers.

According to the World Fact book (internet search, lol) there are 303,824,646 people in the US. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html

According to Wikipedia, the MK (#1 park) averages 17 million visits annually. Now considering many of those visitors are not US citizens and the fact that 17 million visitors is just about 5% of the US population, I'd say the number of US children would have to be 1%, if that.

To those with teens that never make fun of anyone.... thanks for the laugh! If they aren't saying it in front of you, they are definitely dissing others with their friends.

 

[keishashadow]

gee, i don't know never really thought about it, just so darn happy to be there

will say i wasn't able to take my 2 older DSs to WDW when they were young due to financial restraints (and the fact that their father hated amusement parks); was glad that circumstances changed and my youngest is a regular...we're making up for lost time now

do know that many people over-extend themselves for lots of things, including family vacations; while others don't find it a priority...so i don't think disposible income = park visits

not sure if im 'upper middle class', glad just to be comfortable...plenty peeps with more, many more with less & my DSs know it...no living la vida loca in our house

 

[MsMamaBear]

I don't think it's high. Some from finances and some from vacationing different. I cruised and did all-inclusives before I had my daughter. Disney didn't get on my radar with my daughter until I was just like, I'll try it once to get it over with. LOL!

 

[lynxstch]

Zombie thread...almost 8 years old, lol

 

[Colleen27]

I'm guessing there are big variations based on both region and finances. Of my kids' friends, only a handful have been to WDW and many have never even left our state. But that's really not surprising to me, considering that we live in a blue collar area a thousand miles from Orlando.

 

[aristocatz]

I did a quick Google search & saw some numbers that indicated between 50-70% (WDW & DL). It's unclear where this data comes from & how accurate it is, but I was surprised & skeptical at how high the numbers are. I wonder if those numbers actually refer to the percentage of WDW guests being from the US. I feel like 50-70% sounds alot more realistic.

15% of Americans are considered to be "living in poverty," so I'm going to guess most of those families can be crossed off the list. Around 19% of families were "childless" in the last consensus & birthrate in this country is overall declining, but I'm not sure how this factors in adoptive families. Of course not all families who go to WDW have children (my parents are in their mid 70's & they go 2-3x/year), but I'm going to guess that the majority of WDW guests are families with children 12 or under.

I'm quite sure that Disney has these numbers, but I'm not sure emailing guest relations would provide those numbers. Anyone know anyone who works for Disney who they could ask?

 

[aristocatz]

Zombie thread...almost 8 years old, lol

Wow, I didn't catch that! How the heck do these things resurface?

 

[kimblebee]

Zombie thread...almost 8 years old, lol

So? It's still an interesting topic..

 

[minnie mum]

So? It's still an interesting topic..

Sorry, an 8 year old thread of flat out guesses is anything but interesting. Disney doesn't release its demographics, so the question can't be answered.

 

[kimblebee]

Sorry, an 8 year old thread of flat out guesses is anything but interesting. Disney doesn't release its demographics, so the question can't be answered.

You clicked on it so obviously you were interested...

 

[eliza61]

That's what I was thinking. I can't think of anyone that I know who hasn't been to WDW. And we don't live close to it or anything. I'm sure that there are a lot of children who have never been, but I don't personally know of any.

We're the opposite the only reason my sons know kids that have been to the world is because it's a popular senior trip destination in NJ where they went to H.S.

Out of 17 first cousins we are the only ones who go. Most of my friends have absolutely no desire to take their kids

 

[marciemi]

Wow, I didn't catch that! How the heck do these things resurface?

I'm evidently the OP and have absolutely no recollection of the incident with my son (who is now a Navy Officer!) or posting this thread. So it was interesting to me at least!

 

[bcla]

Nothing like a revived thread to bring back my pet peeve of the whole "going to Disney" thing.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/do...ney-world-and-disney-interchangeably.3243936/

 

[jx2353]

I also believe that 53 to 66 percent of Americans have never been to Disney World. I haven't seen any percentages of online about what percent of Americans have never been to Disney World but it's obviously more than 50 percent. Can someone tell me if my range is right or too low???

 

[Aliceacc]

Zombie thread or not...

According to CNN, 2 years ago almost 40% of US kids qualified for a free lunch. http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/10/news/economy/school-children-free-lunch/

So my guess is that the overwhelming majority of those kids probably have never been to Disney.

Sometimes we forget how incredibly lucky we are. In the game of "It's not fair" we tend to have no idea how unfair life is to so many others.

 

[Aliceacc]

How funny. It's 9 years later, and both times my instinct was to check the number of kids receiving a free lunch to refute the statistic. I got different numbers from different sources, but my instinct was the same.

I'm in a private Catholic school-- my guess would be that very few of the kids I teach qualify for that free lunch. So it's not part of my day to day experience. Yet it was the first thing I turned to on this thread for both replies.

I'm nothing if not consistent.

 

[Westcoastwild]

It's definitely regional. I'll say 9% of people under the age of 18 have been or will go to a Disney park once. Less than 1% will go to both Florida and DL or more than once in general.

Pulling those numbers out of my you know what. But seriously, where I'm from, that's like the ultimate once and done family trip if you're middle class and have young kids. If a family flies anywhere for a vacation, it'll be Disneyland.

I know almost no one in real life that has been multiple times. And the few people I do know ALWAYS have local ties (like relatives that have APs and that's just what they do when family is in town)

 

[L&Lfan]

Zombie thread...almost 8 years old, lol

I still think the overall number is relatively low.