[tarxvf]

I don't think it's at risk of being overstatement. CW bands are more crowded than ever before, because there are more CW ops than ever before.

This is, I think, because it's easier to learn than ever, ham radio equipment is more capable for a cheaper (adjusted) price, and ham radio has grown tremendously worldwide due to all barriers being lowered a bit.

CW is very popular, especially given all the other options that are easier.

That it's a smaller percentage of hams that know CW than before is another way of saying ham radio has expanded well beyond CW and the population has grown. But if you have a finite resource (bandwidth) and it's in significantly more demand than ever before, it's a hard argument to suggest that it's not 'very' active.