How common is perfect pitch?

Question

It is said here that 1 in 10,000 people have absolute pitch. I wonder if there is any serious poll that could confirm this.

Do you know any study that could tell how common/uncommin it is to have absolute pitch ?

blueberryfields · Answer 1 · 2012-08-22 00:30:06Z

Those numbers are a rough estimate, and only applies to US citizens.

Wikipedia has a thorough overview of the relevant information, here. The most salient points:

Absolute pitch seems to be a cognitive act. It's a property of our brains, and not our ears
Most people exhibit some ability or sub-components of absolute pitch
Absolute pitch appears to be trainable to a very high degree. It can be taught/learned.
Different populations have different percent exhibition for absolute pitch - some estimates for chinese speaking populations go as high as 40-50%.

So, two answers to your question:

1/10000 is a rough estimate for US citizens exhibiting absolute pitch
Since absolute pitch is trainable, and most people exhibit some components of it, it's unlikely we can get better than a very rough estimate.

Just to support this answer: When you've listened to the same song a million times, you'll probably find yourself humming it, or "hear it" in your head. When you've done this many times you'll often find that you've remembered the pitch correctly. This is also a great way to practice it - to just regularly check if you're humming the right tone by checking it on the piano
Most people asking about "perfect pitch" have this idea that it is genetic and innate. The evidence seems to deny this possibility. It is very difficult to disentangle language and training from the phenomenon.

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