I would bet that most lifetime license holder's are 50 or older. I purchased my son a lifetime license when he was under 5 years old for his birthday one year. My wife thought it was the dumbest thing I could have ever done. She kept asking me what happens if Cody chooses to never hunt, and I told her the reason I got him the license is that the Division needed the money and I would look upon it at it as a donation, if that ended up being the case. He's now 28 and I am sure one of the younger lifetime license holders.
One needs to remember that when lifetime licenses were offered, very few people purchased them as they were too expensive and most did not want to make the investment. I can't recall the first year they began selling them, but it was sometime in the late 70's or early 80's I believe.
Once Don Peay organized the meeting on the state capitol and got the tags numbers reduced from unlimited down to 97,000 permit cap, hunters flocked to the Division to purchase a lifetime license. During that short time frame (from the time they announced the tag reduction, to the time they ended the lifetime license sales, which was only weeks long, they sold more lifetime license during that period than they did in its prior existence.
I bought mine within the first 150 sold and years later purchased my son his, and during those years only about 1000 more lifetime tags were sold.
It would be interesting too to know the age of those that post they have a license. I am 70, so according to the law of averages, I shouldn't be in the game much longer. And I bet a good number of those not requesting permits are hunters whose health or age just don't make it possible anymore.
Have a good one. BB