This is not entirely true ... in reality, there are 100 times fewer truly active accounts. And if we also exclude bounty hunters from the equation, then even less. While BPIP data shows that there are currently 250,000 active accounts, it is worth considering the fact that these numbers include 100,000 newly registered accounts (literally in 10 days). So the overall situation is pretty sad.
You cannot exclude the bounty hunters from the active user list as they post on forum and are considered active. It does not matter if they are reporting their bounty or doing normal discussion post. Also i believe this number will increase with time as more people become aware of bitcoin and then bitcointalk.