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From this tweet by Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The rise of flat-Earthers in the United States...

And from The Guardian

Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat...

Is there a rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat?

I found this YouGov article which states "Just 66% of millennials firmly believe that the earth is round." The same article shows that a higher percentage of respondents believe the Earth is round with an increasing age group. However, YouGov doesn't publicly release its methodology, so I am not particularly inclined to believe its results (especially if uncorroborated).

I have also seen the graph below. However, it indicates (supposedly) search volume, which may not be proportional to the number of flat-Earthers (i.e. if I search "Flat earth," it doesn't necessarily mean I am a flat-Earther).

enter image description here

Note: The tweet mentions "in the United States." This question relates to people in general as in the entire Earth population.

Barry Harrison
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    Your last point is very relevant. Google trends or any other traffic metrics don't mean that there are more believers, just that it's a trendy topic. This exact question for example, increase traffic about flat earth topic, without claiming it's true – Kepotx Apr 11 '19 at 11:29
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    As for your final Note, that most probably makes the question unanswerable, there are unlikely to exist any worldwide representative surveys with this question, that have been consistently asked over time. If you limit it to the USA then it *may* be answerable (or not). Also, the tweet by Neil deGrasse Tyson makes the claim only for the USA. – gerrit Apr 11 '19 at 11:31
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    I think you could definitely say that there's an obvious rise in the _visibility_ of the flat-Earth movement; but beyond that would be rather difficult to determine. It seems unlikely you will find statistics for the number of "flat-Earthers" over time. There's also the issue of Poe's Law. Even looking at the numbers of Youtube videos, or Facebook groups supporting the topic, it's not clear how many of those people are being satirical. I think people are a lot more aware of the movement in the internet age; but if they're anything like me, people looking up "flat Earth" don't support it. – JMac Apr 11 '19 at 11:38
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    @JMac Or enjoy arguing for a flat earth just to make everyone else frustrated. – pipe Apr 11 '19 at 11:50
  • @JMac There are polls of public support for various conspiracy theories over time. Of course some people might still answer anonymous polls dishonestly for a laugh, but that's something the pollsters usually try to account for – user56reinstatemonica8 Apr 11 '19 at 13:45
  • @gerrit Your comment, while insightful, may not be 100% accurate. "Also, the tweet by Neil deGrasse Tyson makes the claim only for the USA." This may not be the case. Search Google for "rise in flat-Earthers" and you will see many *general* claims that don't restrict the phenomenon to the US. In addition, Tyson won't be in any top search result. Why did I even include his tweet in the question? Because its why I got curious. – Barry Harrison Apr 11 '19 at 15:45
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    I am a fan of the title of that chart: "Spheres of influence". – Ertai87 Apr 11 '19 at 18:26
  • statistics can be very misleading, saying something like the rise in flat-Earthers could refer to a numerical count rather than a percentage where the numeric count has increased but the percentage of believers has decreased. This sort of misleading statistic could easily be true given population growth. – BKlassen Apr 11 '19 at 20:22
  • A rise of flat-Earthers? Well, there's been a [rise of at least one flat-Earther](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/25/flat-earther-blasts-california-sky-homemade-steam-powered-rocket/), to an altitude of 1875 feet. – Mark Apr 12 '19 at 01:09
  • @Mark The joke! Very nice. – Barry Harrison Apr 12 '19 at 01:17
  • @Ertai87 Introducing "Spheres of influence": Graph created by a round-Earther. :) – Barry Harrison Apr 12 '19 at 01:18
  • @BKlassen I agree with your point. It will be ideal if the statistic included in the answer contains both absolute number of flat-Earthers as well as the percentage of flat-Earthers. – Barry Harrison Apr 12 '19 at 01:19
  • @JMac RE your comment, did you look up "flat Earth?" – Barry Harrison Apr 12 '19 at 01:33
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    @Mark From the article, the flat-Earther says, *"The problem is, it brings out all the nuts also"*, now I don't know anymore if it's satire or not. – gerrit Apr 12 '19 at 07:27
  • "Just 66% of millennials firmly believe that the earth is round" Sounds a lot to me like "44% of teenagers take the piss out of dumb survey" – Jon.G Apr 12 '19 at 12:21
  • @Jon.G 33% or 44%? – Barry Harrison Apr 12 '19 at 20:08
  • @BarryHarrison I could try and style that out as intentional but no, just bad at maths apparently – Jon.G Apr 13 '19 at 15:17
  • @Jon.G OK, then the comment makes sense :) I appreciate the humor. – Barry Harrison Apr 13 '19 at 17:52
  • @Jon Millennials are not teenagers at this point. I'm a millennial (at the edge) and I'm 33. I think 23 years old is the current power limit. – Matt Samuel Apr 18 '19 at 23:11
  • This [Scientific American article](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/do-people-really-think-earth-might-be-flat/) reviewed the YouGov data and determined that the 66% figure was not reproducible, and instead came up with a figure of 82.5%. – LShaver Feb 16 '22 at 16:38

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