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Rich Riddle
04-12-2015, 10:25 AM
I was reading woodworking statistics and had to wonder about the accuracy. Fine Woodworking says the average woodworker that reads their magazine makes about $122,000 annually and spends $8800 on the hobby each year. It also says we average 50 - 55 years of age. Another study found it's mostly men and a well-educated Caucasian hobby.

Randy Reitz
04-12-2015, 12:22 PM
I'll have to start reading FW again. I'm drastically underpaid.

Andrew Joiner
04-12-2015, 3:12 PM
According to Fine Woodworking I'm below average. According to the people who see my work I'm a guru.
I've read nearly every Fine Woodworking issue from #1 in 1975 to now. I still love the magazine. It's fun to see quality images of the craft and other shops.

julian abram
04-12-2015, 3:16 PM
Hmm, kinda hard to believe. That's about the average salary for an engineering professor in our department.

Matt Day
04-12-2015, 3:47 PM
Is that household income?
I wish I had $8800 to spend each year!

Bruce Page
04-12-2015, 4:04 PM
I'll have to start reading FW again. I'm drastically underpaid.

You and me both, bruddah!

Dan Hintz
04-12-2015, 6:00 PM
Fine Woodworking says the average woodworker that reads their magazine and fills out their surveys makes about $122,000 annually and spends $8800 on the hobby each year. It also says we average 50 - 55 years of age. Another study found it's mostly men and a well-educated Caucasian hobby.

Fixed that for you, so it should make more sense now...

Rick Potter
04-12-2015, 6:10 PM
Hmmm. Since I am 20 years over their average age, I should have spent about $176,000 on it in the last 20 years. Guess I'd better get busy.

Wait till I tell my wife. :eek:

Frederick Skelly
04-12-2015, 7:55 PM
Is that household income?
I wish I had $8800 to spend each year!

Me too. Folks that read FWW are sure high rollers. :)

Rod Sheridan
04-12-2015, 8:12 PM
I was reading woodworking statistics and had to wonder about the accuracy. Fine Woodworking says the average woodworker that reads their magazine makes about $122,000 annually and spends $8800 on the hobby each year. It also says we average 50 - 55 years of age. Another study found it's mostly men and a well-educated Caucasian hobby.

Fits my demographics, and observations of people I know and events I've gone to.

I don't know about the annual expenditure, I put 10% of my income to hobbies for both of us.

I live in a large city, most young people live in apartments or condominiums, hard to be a woodworker without a lot of motivation and effort for those people.

My daughter had a party at her condo, nobody belived that she had made her dining room table, apparently you can only buy furniture........Rod/

Mel Fulks
04-12-2015, 8:14 PM
I predict that in speed dating " I subscribe to Fine Woodworking" will become a most popular phrase.

Rod Sheridan
04-12-2015, 8:14 PM
Fixed that for you, so it should make more sense now...

Good point Dan, however it does fit my observations about woodworkers I know, except of course for the retired ones, who had salaries in that range.

Regards, Rod.

Charlie Velasquez
04-12-2015, 8:40 PM
This is not hard to believe.
First many of the tools are not inexpensive, so as a hobby we can eliminate the indigent.
So, let's say we bottom out at $30,000-$40,000/year (remember, these are people that take this up as a hobby and aspire to be inspired by FWW).

But, there is no upper limit. Whenever you have a limit on one end, you no longer have a normal distribution.
If there was a couple of millionaires that filled out the survey that immediately skews the distribution.

it might be more informative if they gave the median numbers instead.

Jim Koepke
04-12-2015, 8:55 PM
My daughter had a party at her condo, nobody belived that she had made her dining room table, apparently you can only buy furniture........

People amaze me all the time. Often when they see things made in my shop for sale at the farmers market the look at me with a strange look and ask, "where can you buy wood?"

Some folks do not even realize one of the most important industries in this state is lumber.

jtk

Brian Kent
04-13-2015, 12:08 AM
There is probably some self-selecting going on. This may be the average of those who subscribe who also took the time to fill out the survey and are pretty excited about how much they spent last year.

Dan Hintz
04-13-2015, 6:12 AM
Good point Dan, however it does fit my observations about woodworkers I know, except of course for the retired ones, who had salaries in that range.

I fit that demographic, at least as far as the yearly spending goes... but I do feel that the people who fill out the forms are likely not your average woodworker. How many people do we see here (and on other forums) that are scrimping/scrounging for a few hundred dollars to get a used lathe? "I will have to wait until my next paycheck to get that $80 sharpening stone." These are obviously not the people filling out the survey.

Jim Matthews
04-13-2015, 6:52 AM
When I lived in Seattle (briefly) the busiest part of the port was constantly loading logs onto container ships.
I suppose if you never get further afield than SeaTac or I-90, you wouldn't see clear cuts.

I remember genuine surprise in finding out that the little wooded islands were prized, and replanted
for their easy access and productivity. When I think of lumber, I think of the falling steps.

Getting it to market is half the cost. That's easier with a boat.

Rod Sheridan
04-13-2015, 7:57 AM
I fit that demographic, at least as far as the yearly spending goes... but I do feel that the people who fill out the forms are likely not your average woodworker. How many people do we see here (and on other forums) that are scrimping/scrounging for a few hundred dollars to get a used lathe? "I will have to wait until my next paycheck to get that $80 sharpening stone." These are obviously not the people filling out the survey.

Agreed Dan, they're probably not the people I see at seminars either, as they may not be willing to pay for the seminar.

I do feel however that the projection that woodworking as a hobby is declining is correct.

There are still people doing woodworking as a cost cutting measure ( I can't afford to pay someone to replace that piece of trim so I'll do it myself).

Regards, Rod.

Art Mann
04-13-2015, 11:00 AM
As a general principle, any survey which is not conducted on a random selection of those being surveyed is utterly worthless in any kind of scientific sense. The only way the survey would come anywhere close to being valid is if the participants were selected at random from the subscription list and then interviewed individually. There is also the concept of the statistically valid sample of the total population, which is typically about 1000. If the survey was conducted in any other way than this, then the information is of no value. It might just prove that wealthy woodworkers are more likely to send in a survey than poor ones.

Andy Pogue
04-13-2015, 11:30 AM
Also remember that those same stats are probably used to woo advertisers. It's like PGA golf, not that many viewers, but most have financial wherewithal to buy a Buick or Caddy.
Just my 2 cents worth (and closer to amount I have to spend than 8 grand)!

Tom Stenzel
04-13-2015, 12:46 PM
... Fine Woodworking says the average woodworker that reads their magazine makes about $122,000 annually and spends $8800 on the hobby each year...

The income number is useless. Is that the woodworker's income or total household income? Even the statement "the average woodworker that reads the magazine" can be taken in several ways. Are they defining their "average woodworker" as the same thing as their "average reader"?

Dunno what to make of it, Rich. I don't read FW so I can't see if you chopped off some info when you posted this. But I doubt it. It seems to me that the "study" is just fluff for the advertisers.

Makes me think of Lake Wobegon where the kids are all above average.

-Tom

Wade Lippman
04-13-2015, 4:18 PM
It might just prove that wealthy woodworkers are more likely to send in a survey than poor ones.

It is exactly the opposite! Most woodworkers are actually billionaires, but their time is too valuable to do surveys. (or participate here) It is only the poor ones that have responded.
I read this somewhere, I can't remember exactly.