Good question, Jock. I suppose it's something akin to 'How long is a piece of string?'

Your definition of wearers, including occasional wearers, but excluding hirers and pipers/band members approximates pretty closely to 'kilt owners'. Unless you are excluding 'owners who only wear it to special occasions of the types where others might rent'.

I'm with MacRobert, I think you might be underestimating. At my work's annual dinner dance, a large majority attend kilted, and I'd say the majority of those own their own kilts.

I realise however that I live in a relatively affluent area which also seems to have a relatively high level of national pride and a low level of the 'Scottish cringe'. This is not representative of all Scotland.

On the other hand, given that you could stand on Union Street a long time before you saw a man walk past in a kilt during the day, I'd say that the vast majority of these aforementioned kilt owners only wear them to formal or special occasions.

So... I suppose it all comes down to exactly how you define 'kiltwearer', and if I had to put a figure on it I'd say somewhere between 5% and 20% of Scottish males occasionally wear a tartan kilt that they didn't rent.

If however I'm wildly wrong it would not surprise me in the least!