What percent of the worlds population can actually solve a Rubik's cube

[Zerksies]

Can anyone give a rough estimate. I want to know how "unique" we are.

I mean they sold over 350 million of these things, but how many put in the time and commitment and can actually do it from memory is probably very few.

There use to be a "Brain Games" type of store that I use to go to in a very busy shopping mall. They would say that there would have one or two people that could solve it like myself in a week. But I have never seen anyone else solve a cube in front of me.

But when you would get into Bigger cubes the amount of people would be a very steep decline. The store manager told me she was the one that she seen could solve a 7x7.

 

[shadowslice e]

I think there should probably be a distinction between "could" and "can". Because I think that almost everyone "could" solve a Rubik's cube but not everyone can be bothered to.

But in reply to the intent of your question I would estimate something like half a million can solve a Rubik's cube given that there are about 80000 people in the WCA database and there are definitely loads who can solve a Rubik's cube but not that many who do it fast or go to a competition so my estimate may be wildly off.

In fact I would estimate the number of people who can would be somewhere in the range of half a million to a few million.

I think the percentage would probably vary from continent to continent were Africa may be lower than other continents while parts of Europe may be higher.

Certainly though, "true" speedsolvers are definitely quite a rare breed.

 

[DGCubes]

I've tried to estimate this before, and I think it's a lot higher than most of us realize. Like @shadowslice e said, there are ~80,000 people who have competed officially. From personal experience, I can say that a vast majority of cubers I've met in public have never competed. Only one who I actually met outside of a competition ended up competing in the future. There were probably about 10 cubers in my middle school who I knew, and probably a few more than that in my high school. So many people just learn and stop there, but still remember how to solve it. Keep in mind also that I live in an area with MANY competitions, so it's not like there's a lack of opportunity there. More remote places likely have no WCA competitors but still quite a few people who can solve the cube.

I'd say a very small percentage of cubers (~1-2% maximum) actually know about competitions and go to one in their area. I'd estimate the total amount of people who can currently solve a cube is therefore between 80,000 * 50 = 4 million and 80,000 * 100 = 8 million, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's slightly more.

So, I'd estimate the percentage is somewhere from 0.06% to 0.11%.

 

[Malkom]

I know around 5-10 people who know how to solve a cube but haven't and probably never will compete. I rarely talk to people so I would imagine it's at the very least 10 times the amount of competitors in the WCA database.

 

[Ollie]

I know around 5-10 people who know how to solve a cube but hasn't and probably never will compete. I rarely talk to people so I would imagine it's at the very least 10 times the amount of competitors in the WCA database.

I know around 20-40 people who know how to solve a cube but haven't and probably never will compete. I talk to people so I would imagine it's at the very least 40 times the amount of competitors in the WCA database.

 

[Zerksies]

I am thinking that the very few that could solve bigger cubes then would be very small. Going buy the topics of how much help is needed to solve them

 

[Gomorrite]

6,789,321 people. I counted them.

Many people knew how to solve it at some point of their lives, but now have forgotten. I didn't count those.