They used that same number in that report issued by the DNR that someone posted here. I think they did a survey and just extrapolated, because it also said that something like 80% of the population are hikers and something like 90% are fisherpersons. Given the number of people that we see on the trails every weekend (we can hike around Bong and see NO hikers for hours), we can safely say that the question answered for the survey (not necessarily the question asked) was “Have you ever participated in or do you hope to participate in (blank)?”, rather than “Do you regularly participate in (blank)?”. It appears that the goal of this survey was to make it look like most of the population is spending their time on the state recreation lands. It would be nice if it were true, but we all know differently.

If you think about it that way, maybe there are 90000 people who have gone caching once with a friend or relative. We even had a stranger tagging along on Oak Creek Tiny Park Tour when they saw us searching around WP3 and offered to help. (He thought we had dropped something down the XXXXX where the waypoint was hidden.) He followed us on his bike to the final and found his first cache with us. Now, did he ever try it again? Who knows, but probably not. But I bet if asked in a survey, he would say he was a geocacher.