Actually the percentage of pilots who hold instrument ratings is much higher
(Close to half), these numbers are private pilots only. The issue in AK is
that there is a lot of IMC that is not flyable without known icing and often
the MEA is in the flight levels, Then there is the issue of having an
approach to your favorite fishing spot! Pilots in AK get around this by
flying VFR whatever the weather and the accident statistics bear this out.

Mike
MU-2

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:7uv1c.470542$na.1113633@attbi_s04...
One thing I find remarkable is that "sunny" Florida and California each
have a higher percentage of instrument flyers than "rainy" Oregon and
Washington.

It's really interesting that Alaska, with arguably the worst weather, has
one of the lowest percentages of instrument ratings.

Of course, I've also heard that they have a lot of "pilots" flying around
who don't appear on any FAA database!
;-)

Overall, this chart seems to match what I've read, which is that around
21%
of pilots have their Instrument Rating -- and a far lower percentage is
actually instrument current.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"