One person per 73,000 people (0.0014% of the population[a]) may have my skills. How did I arrive at this number? Numbers get attention, and I added one to the 'My History In Numbers' section under About Projects Visualiser – for fun. The number claims I've got a one in 73k expertise.

A fun exercise identifying rare skills

Though I did this in fun, I think it's actually not that far out. So how did I come up with the statistic above?

This is not a serious analysis – I'm not a statistical analyst. Instead, it's a fun exercise relying on a bit of logic, and even less data.

So: what might the elements be, that determine someone's skills and their scarcity?

My thoughts are: the shaping environments someone's worked in; what formative roles they've had; how big the community of people who've worked in the same environments and roles is, over a period (their career, say?); and what the focus of their education has been. All these things could be important determiners of rarity.

You've probably a view of your own on those factors, and I'm not saying I'm right. But here's how I approached measuring these characteristics…

A path less travelled

66.56m ÷ ((((109 x 2) x 25) ÷ 𝑥) ÷ 𝑦) = 73,403.08
((((Shaping Environment x Community) x Period) ÷ Key Formative Role) ÷ Education)

That was fun: 1 in 73,403 people, here in the UK, may have a combination of expertise and experience similar to mine. Many are likely to be project management focused however, and there's possibly very few who will have visual communication and design thinking skills.

I've been actively seeking people and businesses who do what I do for a few years now… and so far, I've not found them. It's a bit disturbing – I cannot be that unique. If you know anyone, or it's you, please give me a heads‑up, It'd be great to talk.

References & notes

  1. Google Knowledge Card United Kingdom / Population Several Sources credited [ Accessed: May 2021 ]
  2. According to the Architects Council Of Europe, in 2018 there were only 109 large architectural practices in the UK. Large practices were defined as those employing more than 31 people. It's a small population of workers by any measure. Source: Sector Study: TABLE 3-1 Estimated number and size of architectural practices. Volume 3, Architecture - The Practice p3-34.   Architects Council of Europe 2018. PDF linked to here: https://www.ace-cae.eu [ Accessed: Dec 2019 ]
  3. In 2020, there were 6.0 million private sector businesses in the UK, up by 112,700 compared to 2019. House of Commons Library BRIEFING PAPER Number 06152, 22 January 2021. Business statistics Parliament.uk. (2019). [online PDF] Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk [ Accessed: May 2021 ]
  4. There are other industries that deal with large complex projects. They will also employ people to identify the job‑to‑do, and communicate it. How many are bidding for projects worth £92m and above, is another matter.
  5. 𝑥 = 3, 𝑦 = 2. Even these numbers could be overly generous. It doesn't matter what order relative to each other these are applied in, the result is the same.

I can't really be that unique

I've been actively seeking people and businesses who do what I do for a few years now… and so far, I've not found them. It's a bit disturbing – I cannot be that unique. If you know anyone, or it's you, please give me a heads‑up, It'd be great to be connected.