I’ve long wondered what portion of the general public can juggle. I couldn’t find an answer searching the web, so I used the best polling method I have, Twitter:

Ned Batchelder

@nedbat

“What percent of people can juggle three balls?” I can’t find an answer, so I’m collecting data with a poll. Please RT for reach!

Can you juggle three balls?

Yes 36%

No 64%

780 votes · Final results

9:19 AM · Oct 27, 2020

I realize that my Twitter followers skew toward people like me, so I ran a second poll to try to get data outside of my bubble:

Ned Batchelder

@nedbat

Thanks for voting on my juggling poll. NOW: to correct for my tech-bubble, please ask a NON-TECH friend (or relative, etc), and put their answer in this poll:

Can your non-tech friend juggle three balls?

Yes 25.7%

No 74.3%

113 votes · Final results

10:55 AM · Oct 30, 2020

These polls are by no means scientific, and are still very skewed toward the savvy and educated. If you ask a tech-bubble person to ask a friend, the friend is still from a small slice of the population as a whole.

But this is the best data we’ve got. I’ll say that in general, 20–30% of people can juggle.

Since I was making polls, and since 30% was higher than I would have guessed, I made a third poll to see what other people would guess:

Ned Batchelder

@nedbat

Before I reveal the results of my juggling poll, what is your guess?

What percent of people can juggle three balls?

5% 35.3%

15% 36.1%

30% 23.9%

50% 4.8%

377 votes · Final results

8:26 AM · Oct 31, 2020

There’s a nice symmetry to the idea that about 70% of people are surprised that about 30% of people can juggle!

If you have a better source of data about the general public, let me know.