I cannot find the statistics, but I remember reading a few years ago that there was a surprising percentage of (adult) Americans who have never once flown in a plane.
Does anyone have a good link/source to the current statistics?
(Also, statistics from other countries regarding percentage of people who have never been in a plane would be interesting as a comparison.)
I can’t find anything recent. I actually thought the numbers would have been higher.
This poll from February 21, 2002 says 11%.
This site says 20% in October 2003.
This site from July 18, 2001 says that 28% of Americans have not flown. This same site says that men spend an average of 3,350 hours a year shaving, so I would be skeptical about it’s accuracy.
By the way, I googled “percentage americans never flown”.
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Ha ha! That works out to 9+ hours a day!
I bet they meant 3,350 hours over a man’s lifetime. That works out to about 10 minutes a day.
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Well that’s just an average… some of us spend considerably more. 
Not to hijack but I heard/read a statistic that 1/3 of the people in the world have never made a phone call.
Maybe when the flight statistic is checked out that one can also be verified or denied.
Thank you for the info - and when I Googled it, I got nothin’ - so guess I should bone up on my Googling skills. I recall reading it was a much high percentage, so perhaps I am recalling an article that was older than I thought.
At any rate, this answers the question.
Thanks - now excuse me, I have to go shave for a few hours.
That’s because they’re too busy chewing the spiders they eat. 
On that note, is it anywhere safe to say that at this very moment in time that there are more people who have not flown than those who have. That is, since the poor population of the world is somewhat off the charts, and that flying on an airplane is, while less expensive than a space-shot, still something of a luxury, that more people haven’t flown than have.
Rhythm
I think that’s a pretty safe bet. Look at these population figures. I think it would be safe to say that less than 5% (probably less than 1%) of the people in China and India have ever been on an airplane. And the population of those two countries alone dwarfs the population of the US and other western countires where air travel is common.
Wanna tell us what your initial guess had been? Was the “surprising percentage” higher than that, or lower than that?
Considering how many Americans have trouble just getting from paycheck to paycheck – or getting a paycheck at all – I’d imagine that there are a lot who have never flown.
I’ve been to 34 states and 2 Canadian provinces and have never been in an airplane. I’m thinking about flying for the first time this summer. I’m surprised I’m in such a minority.
Huh. Colour me surprised. I would have expected a lower number. I’m by no means from a wealthy family - quite the opposite in fact. And yet I can’t think of a person in my family who hasn’t been on a plane at one time or another.
There’s probably some statistical way to figure this out.
Here are U.S. airline passenger boardings for 2003-2005.
According to this 120 million Americans belong to frequent flyer programs.
Divide that by the average of 6.7 different airline programs the typical frequent flyer belongs to and you get about 18 million individuals. They fly an average of 32.1 flights per year, or 577.8 million flights per year.
That leaves about 40 million passengers who AREN’T frequent flyers. The two groups equal about 58 million individuals.
In other words, about 1 out of 5 people in the U.S. are doing all the flying in any given year. The other 80% didn’t fly at all that year.
But over an entire lifetime? Your guess is as good as mine.
I could have sworn that I read almost 50% of adults in the USA had never flown - but again, the article was years ago so perhaps the statistics have changed drastically, or I simply misread the article.
I’d say that 28% is probably closer than 11%. On the other hand, there are probably many, many people who have flown once, but only once. (Well, ok, twice: there and back. But you know what I mean.)