Speculation on the popularity of bitcoin? How many people know about btc?

[bitcoinsrus]

Hello, I am a relatively new adopter to btc.  I like its principles and its a pretty cool nuance in the internet.  Everyone who I talk to about bitcoin looked at me like I was crazy (when explaining the genius behind how the protocol works).  When I tell them to invest because a few years they would have a nice nest egg (or at least be a part of something that will go down in history), they don't really listen to me.

My question is how many people are really involved in bitcoin?  When I check fiat leak, In the span of 30 minutes or so, I see 200+ btc traded from US, Canada and a few from brazil, europe etc.  But when I look at China they do an average of 50 times as much if not more in the span of a few minutes.

On ebay miners go sky high so I assume many people know what bitcoin is.  Is the total number of the bitcoin network currently 1million-10 million?  Is fiatleak not a good source to see how many bitcoins flow into countries (I assume the exchanges are not included on fiat leak)

I also read here that most of bitcoin users (like me) recently showed up on the scene (large percentages).  
Is this true and how will this increase (if it does).

And why aren't places like japan and the other big countries not trading (as much as china) on fiat leak (I know china and russia had issues with it etc).

Thanks for reading

[TERA]

There has been a huge surge in awareness of btc starting in October because it has had so much coverage by the press and by nbc. If you work in an office, you problably have a coworker or two who is secretly into btc. Almost everyone I mention it to nowadays at least knows that bitcoin is "that alternative form of money". However, awareness and taking an interest are two different things.

[CrusaderTim]

Bitcoin is traded among some internet nerds and speculators with extra gamble money, it's gonna be regulated and used in some web based services and black market only

[ThatDGuy]

There has been a huge surge in awareness of btc starting in October because it has had so much coverage by the press and by nbc. If you work in an office, you problably have a coworker or two who is secretly into btc. Almost everyone I mention it to nowadays at least knows that bitcoin is "that alternative form of money". However, awareness and taking an interest are two different things.

This is about what my anecdotal evidence would support as well.  Almost everyone in here is familiar with it now though, after I told them in April and then some dabbled a bit and everyone paid attention in October and since.

I would be surprised if more than 1 in 20 (maybe higher) in a professional environment actually have any, though.  I'm shocked to be in the tech sector and see so few who have some BTC.