Originally Posted by duvie
I believe all these stats are much more indicative of General Aviation Trends. ERAU, Purude, UND and other schools are experiencing growth, and many new universities are opening aviation programs. ATP is booming. It seems to me that there are more people pursuing commercial aviation than before.
Every one of those students going through the programs you mentioned fit into the statistics because they start out with Student Pilot certificates and work their way through Private, Commercial, etc.
Take a look at the FAA website. From 1990 to 2005 there is a drop in Commercial Pilots (FW) of 32,000 pilots. Conversely, there is an equal increase in ATPs. Overall, there is a drop of almost 93000 total pilots.