There used to be a stigma against left-handed people, so a lot of lefties would hide the fact that they were left-handed. This isn’t really a history of how many people are left-handed, but rather a history of how many people are openly left-handed.
Stigmatized to the point that left handed kids were forced to learn to write with their right hand, including physical punishment from teachers if they were caught using their left hand. Not just voluntarily hidden, but actively suppressed.
Why did it dip around 1910? Did they stop collecting data for those years or something?
There used to be a stigma against left-handed people, so a lot of lefties would hide the fact that they were left-handed. This isn’t really a history of how many people are left-handed, but rather a history of how many people are openly left-handed.
Stigmatized to the point that left handed kids were forced to learn to write with their right hand, including physical punishment from teachers if they were caught using their left hand. Not just voluntarily hidden, but actively suppressed.