Incidence of Force sensitively in the Old Republic

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

So, using round numbers....

-- if the Old Republic has 100,000 "systems" in it
-- and if each "system" averages a population of 10 billion, accounting for systems that may have multiple planets and averaging populations between planets like Tatooine with maybe a few million and Curoscant with maybe a few trillion
-- and if there are maybe 10,000 Jedi in the galaxy.

That would mean that the incidence of Force sensitivity that could lead to a fully trained Jedi is roughly 1 in every 100 billion individuals. Maybe it's more common, maybe less. And we don't know much about what happens to the people to don't make it through the training, or the ones that were almost, but not quite sensitive enough to be selected in the first place.

In any case, Jedi seem to be fairly uncommon.

[Andle Di-Ranos]

True there were never many jedi, that's why the jedi civil war was so bad is because unlike soldiers you just couldn't keep replacing jedi. Thats another reason why the republic is always in wars because there isn't enough jedi to keep it at peace. Im pretty sure most of the jedi that don't make it through the training probably become sith, from being discouraged and learning all that power, and wanting to show off and twist it to there own liking.

[tanzanlinnear]

If I recall, the series of books chronicalling Obi-Wan's youth, suggested that younglings not taken as padawans by their 13th birthday were shipped to the agricultural corps. That doesn't make much sense, as Andle says above, without the full Jedi Training (both Anakin and Luke being prime examples) it's much easier for the person to go over to the Dark Side, mainly through lack of emotional control rather than mastery of the Force, and if there is a whole agricultural core of half-trained Jedi who are none to happy with their lot in life, they'd probably be more than capable of starting another civil war.
I can just see the title... StarWars Episode X: Return of the Farmers

[Andle Di-Ranos]

How about STARWARS Episode X: Farmers on strike. LOL so basically if you fail the training or never picked as an apprentice you become a farmer, well that stinks they want even let you go back and start a new life.

[himiko sabbrawrra]

You serious? They actualy do that to the younglings?

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Yes, according to the Jedi Apprentice books, students at the Jedi Temple who are not picked as apprentices to become Jedi Knights are sent to the Agricultural Corps. Now that I think about it....interesting that Luke Skywalker started out being a farmer.

This is all EU material, so it's still subject to change, depending on what shows up on screen.

Personally, I think that when it comes to Jedi powers, it's Use It or Lose It. If you don't stay in "mental shape" with the discipline, the meditation, the focus, and basically being a Jedi is the ONLY thing you do, you won't be able to keep up your abilities. Presumably, the same would be true for Sith except that they have it easier because their anger and lust for power can be their focus. Qui-Gon's instruction about "quieting your mind" implies that this is part of the discipline and that's a lot harder than it sounds.

I don't know what keeps any rejected Jedi student from just going over to the dark side right away except that potential problem kids are likely watched. Any who've been out of the program for long likely lose the discipline to go either Jedi or Sith and aren't a problem afterward. But that's just pure speculation.

I certainly like to think that they're given more career opportunities than farming! Especially if they kill a lot of plants.