Sunday, May 31, 2009

Survey Results: Who Reads This Blog

  • 84% of you are male (-2% on 2008)
  • 92% of you are in the UK (-)
  • 23% of you are in London (-4), 19% in the South East (-), 8% in Scotland (+2), 3% in Wales (-), 2% in Northern Ireland (+1)
  • 16% of you are age 16-25 (-), 26-35, 21% (-), 36-45, 20% (+2), 46-55, 19% (+2), 56-65 16% and 8% older than 65 (-)
  • 14% (-3%) of you are retired and 10% (+1) of you are students
  • The most common income range is £25-£50,000 (31%), but 9% of you earn more than £100,000
  • 26% of you read between 6 and 10 blogs a day
  • An astonishing 6% (+2%) of you read more than 25 blogs a day
  • 36% of you often read the comments on my blog. Only 4% never do.
  • 49% of you never leave comments.
  • 52% of you want more gossip and 67% want more policy analysis
  • 96% (+3) of you believe blogging has an increasing influence on the media
  • 94% (+7) of you believe blogging has an increasing influence on politics
  • 86% (+4) of you read blogs more often than you did a year ago
  • 61% of you think blogs haven't fulfilled their potential
All the figures in brackets show the difference to the 2008 survey.

Note: 2,400 of you took part in this survey

14 comments:

Dave H said...

Iain, weren't you even tempted to use a graph for this?

wv=disable

Conand said...

Dave H >>

Graphs be damned! Iain just likes a good listing.

Adrian said...

"An astonishing 6% (+2%) of you read more than 25 blogs a day"

Unfortunately, quite a lot of people think that "blog" means the same thing as "blog post", so that might be where some of your 6% comes from.

Dave said...

London or the South East. Yeah, that's the whole of England.

Anonymous said...

Come on Iain, give us the locational breakdown for the remaining 45%. The English regions and overseas.

Iain Dale said...

Other regional breakdowns are as follows...

East Anglia 7%
South West 8%
Midlands 9%
North 4%
North East 4%
North West 7%
Ireland 0.5%
E Europe 0.5%
Middle east 0.4%
USA 1.4%
Far East 0.5%
Australia 0.7%
Africa 0.1%

orientalsage said...

84% male says a lot.

Next time we hear commentators (of either sex) talk about the need to get more women in to parliament, point them to this figure.

This makes the 'glass ceiling' argument seem rather too convenient.

If this website were a public institution it would be accused of being non-female-friendly or institutionally sexist. Which would normally be a cue to waste millions of pounds of our money inventing spurious explanations and 'engagement' strategies.

The truth is that 84% of the readers are male - that's just the way it is. For a fuller explanation, read Simon Baron-Cohen's highly accessible books - he's a psychologist and autism researcher who's carried out extensive research on what he calls the 'extreme male brain'. Interesting stuff, especially for left-wing policymakers who never let inconvenient facts get in the way of discredited Marxist ideologies.

Anonymous said...

Action needed on the gender imbalance, Iain. You should start barring some of us chaps.

Mad said...

As a female who reads blogs and probably easily reads 25 separate blogs some days I am amazed at the lack of female readership. It makes me feel very odd.

This is my first time commenting on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Mad - I've left comments a few times now. It gets a little easier. You're braver than me, though, I'm still anon.

georgeorwellslittlesister said...

I'm a girlie and I read blogs - and write them.
However, I didn't fill in the questionnaire as I objected to being asked about my income without the option to refuse.
I live in East Anglia; so one more female outside London.
Does that alter any of the percentages in any of your lists, Iain?

Mirtha Tidville said...

OK chaps we have been found out...suggest we unshackle the little women from the kitchen sinks now ...what about 7 to 7.30ish that ok....

georgeorwellslittlesister said...

Mirtha Tidville,
Is that am or pm? And will you make me a cup of tea while I blog?

Rebel Saint said...

84% male. You'll probably find yourself falling foul of Jacqui's equality legislation. Expect the Stasi to come knocking.