Irv,
the people who would in reality be influenced most by statistics of hours to first solo are exactly those who wouldn't be able to interpret them sensibly, ie inexperienced and even prospective students.
eg. Student at school A is worried because he's done 14 hours and not gone solo whereas his mate at school B 'says' he's gone solo in 8.
School B says 'School A is wasting your time, all our students go solo in under 10 hours' Student is suitably impressed whilst having no knowledge of variables such as:
If student at school A has an engine failure or other emergency anywhere in the circuit he stands a good chance of dealing with it. Student at school B has probably had one EFATO demonstrated to him.
School A is maybe a bit more consciencious because he owns some of his own aeroplanes whereas School B leases all his and if one gets slightly bent it's somebody else's problem.
Also how do you oblige a school to reveal the hours that their student who just went solo in 7 hours, actually did at another school before he joined them, and maybe hasn't even told them about ?
'To delay first solo policy ..... extend PPL beyond 45 hours' - most take longer than 45 hours as this is the absolute minimum deemed necessary to complete the syllabus, not a maximum in which to 'prepare somebody for test'. I remember in my first instructing job a student stirring up amongst other concerned students by persistently shouting 'Oh I easily finished in 45 hours, it shouldn't be a problem' He never though told anybody that before starting that PPL course he already had 15 hours from the UAS. Oh and guess what, when I came across him again years later both instructing at the same school, it was interesting to note how many of his students didn't pass their various progress tests first time.
IMHO, Homeguard is quite correct, such statistics just become a meaningless bickering tool between schools. If a school had an average of 25 hours to first solo do you think they would actually publish it rather than find a way of massaging it ?
'Nuff said, rant over.
Rona, are you for some reason worried about your own progress or just wondering ? Again, IMHO, depending on a reasonable training environment and continuity of training ( I don't think age is that important unless we're talking extremes ), 'average' hours to first solo should be about 12 to 15.