(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4355) How many Fortran programmers are there?

[Tobias Burnus]

Van Snyder wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-11-17 at 13:54 -0800, John Reid wrote:
>> I have been asked if I can estimate how many Fortran programmers there are. Does
>> anyone have any thoughts?
> 1.  Multiply the number of distinct names posting to comp.lang.fortran
> by some random number you pull out of your hat.
>
> 2.  Ask vendors how many licenses they sell.  Multiply that by a
> different random number you pull out of your hat to account for floating
> licenses and piracy.  Add yet another random number to account for GNU
> fortran users.

3. Goto http://www.google.com/trends?q=Fortran  - subtract the double 
counts, add those users which do not google for it and tell us the exact 
number (+/- 10% is sufficient).

More seriously: I find it quite interesting to look at the countries and 
languages on that page. One sees that there are many users from 
countries which are severely under represented in J3, WG5, c.l.f, GCC 
bugreports etc.

Tobias

PS: Does anyone understand why Greece (inhabitants: 11.2 millions) comes 
up that high?