Population 600,000,000

[CU Tiger]

On the upper area of the main train station at MK, it says “population 600,000,000.” What is this referring to?

[seanyred]

I always thought it was in refrence to the number of guests that have passed through...but I would think the number would be higher.

Just guessing though.

[Joannelet]

It may have been put there in 1998. THat was when the 600,000,000 guest walked through.

[BMan62]

Speaking of that....shouldn't they have reached the One Billionth Visitor yet?

[Ian]

It may have been put there in 1998. THat was when the 600,000,000 guest walked through.

That's pretty amazing if you think about it, because the park was 27 years old in 1998. That works out to 22,222,222 people per year or 60,883!

[BigThunderFan]

Well according to the Travel Channel the Magic Kingdom gets around 40 million visitors per year. Now what I would like to know and there is no possible way to track this (at least not back to '71), how many of those visitors were repeats and how many were distinctly first time visitors. It would be neat to see exactly how many different people have actually been to WDW.

[Ian]

Well according to the Travel Channel the Magic Kingdom gets around 40 million visitors per year.

My guess is that's based on turnstile numbers, because that comes out to something like an average of almost 110,000 guests per day.

I can't imagine that's unique guests, because otherwise you'd be talking about a packed house every day of the year. I'm not even sure the total capacity of Magic Kingdom is 100,000!

[BigThunderFan]

Maybe that was supposed to say WDW gets 40 million guests per year, not just MK...

[wdwfansince75]

The statistics I found are that in 2008, MK had 17 Million visitors....EPCOT, DHS, and AK were all about 9-10 Million..I have notes from earlier years indicating that in 2000, WDW total visitors passed 40 Million for the first time.

From another site, I got these time line attendance numbers for WDW....

August 1972 Attendance passes 10 million
March 1976 50-millionth guest
October 1979 100-millionth guest
July 1987 Total attendance tops 250 million
August 1992 400-millionth guest
September 1994 1-billionth guest to a Disney theme park worldwide
Oct. 13, 1995 500-millionth guest
June 24, 1998 600-millionth guest

[Captain_Nemo]

Maybe that was supposed to say WDW gets 40 million guests per year, not just MK...

yea but think about it, who goes to WDW and skips MK?

[Ian]

yea but think about it, who goes to WDW and skips MK?

You'd be amazed ... don't underestimate the total number of convention guests Disney World gets each year. Many, many of them never set foot inside a theme park at all ... unless it's for some organized event.

I know tons of people who've gone to Disney World for conventions and done nothing but golf and hang out at the resort in their spare time.

[Captain_Nemo]

true OMG I coulden't even go through the state with out finding some excuse to stop by lol. I got a job at the airlines at one time just so I could buy an AP and fly down for the day for free on my days off.

[crltkcagle]

I have never noticed that before! On my next trip I am going to ask a CM what it means.

[Patricia]

yea but think about it, who goes to WDW and skips MK?

I pretty much skipped the MK last year when we were there for Christmas. I did walk in to watch Wishes on Christmas Eve.. then got the heck out of there. It was so busy they actually had us exit backstage after the show. We just had no desire to face that crowd and enjoyed the other three parks and our resort.

[Joannelet]

K, forget it I found out I have family that work there...
The number does refer to the number of people that have walked through MK.
I am definitely assuming now that this was put up in 1998 since that is when the 600,000,000 guest walked through the MK gates. I am trying to verify that.....