The percentage of knife carriers varies wildly, depending on where you are, but it's a lot less than it used to be. There are also likely a lot of people carrying knives that you wouldn't think of being someone who always carries a knife, because they don't fit preconceived notions. I suspect that airports have stopped their fair share of people from the habit of carrying knives, after stealing their steel on a regular basis and people getting tired of having to buy new replacement knives. The idea of fixing stuff yourself is now considered more of a hobby than a necessity by many people, so tools are now more likely collected than used in large segments of the population. If you work at or frequent facilities that have a zero weapons policy it can be a royal pain to have to stash your knife somewhere if you forgot that you were carrying it. I carried a knife since I was in elementary school, but I never had any desire to pull it out and get stabby. Even then you didn't advertise that you had a knife in school and wave it around like an idiot, but it was just a tool to be used when needed. Nowadays, kids and teachers can be suspended/expelled for carrying a Swiss Army Knife in their backpacks, even on school outdoor field trips or camping trips.
Where I live it probably depends on if you moved here from suburbia and then complain about the lack of amenities or if you're from a rural background to begin with. In the city it also varies wildly, by job, upbringing, and how afraid you are of the people around you. Trades and resource workers are going to be high percentage carriers or be the annoying person always asking to borrow someone else's. Office workers much less so, outside of maintenance staff. I doubt more than a small percentage of hikers in my region carry a knife, because they're trying to carry ultra-light kit up and down the hills, and just out for the day or an hour or so. They're out there to touch the grass and get fit, not show off their knife carving skills on a
try stick. A lot of job sites are adamant about you not carrying knives, but many of those would shrug about multitools or Swiss Army Knives. It often comes down to perception about how
murdery your knife looks.
Even in the military, where you'd expect everyone to carry a knife, many people are either dissuaded (
especially in basic training) or of the opinion that it's extra weight and if they needed it the government would issue it (
and they often get issued some random multi-tool or pointy thing at some point and then try to not carry it because it's weight and/or something else to worry about losing). It's strange that in the military, where you regularly work with automatic weapons and even explosives, you'll have some officers antsy about soldiers having their own sharp and pointy things.
