Like the residents of Lake Wobegon, another year of better data analytics and audience growth has cemented what we’ve already known: As a group, you’re way above average. You are considerably richer and better educated the average person in the United States, more likely to identify as politically independent, more likely to have children, and skew male with far higher than normal interests in science, books, technology, news, fashion, food, gardening, sports, cars, investing, music, video games, and finance.
Specifically, 1 out of 6 of you now earns a minimum of $12,500 per month, while 1 out of 3 of you is earning at least $8,333 or more per month inclusive of the higher bracket; both far and away better than the United States as a whole (the last time I checked, the middle quintile of households earned $2,895 to $4,336 per month). Though there is no way to track it, I’d bet a lot of money that the net-worth-per-dollar-of-income figure of this group is off the charts as almost everyone here seems to prioritize saving and investing high on the list of life’s joys. Hand almost anyone who reads this blog a big check and the odds are good that most of the money’s going to be devoted to earning dividends, interest, and rents so we can enjoy the cash flow for the rest of our lives.
You are disproportionately 25-34 years old but otherwise, you roughly mirror the general population except for the 18 and younger, and 65 and older, age groups, which are underrepresented.
You are 1.16x as likely to have a college degree and 2.08x as likely to have a graduate degree relative to the general population in the United States. You are half as likely as the typical American to have no college education at all.
A new quantitative measure tracks political affiliation and, no surprise given most of us seem to identify as rational pragmatists, there isn’t a lot of ideological purity. You are slightly more likely than average to identify as independent but otherwise represent a great cross-section of the country. Specifically, 22% of you identify as Republican, 28% as Democrat, and 49% as Independent.
You are more politically active than the average American, taking an interest in the direction of your country, elections, and laws.
Ethnically, Asian readers are twice as prevalent as you would expect relative to the percentage found in the general population but this makes perfect sense when you cross reference the demographic’s higher-than-average educational attainment and earning power. Roughly 1 out of every 14 of you is black, 1 out of every 14 of you is hispanic, and 1 out of 100 of you identifies as “Other”. Caucasians are right around what you would expect relative to the general population so not much deviation there.
This next statistic fascinates me because I can see it fluctuating with the type of post I write. The female audience continues to grow, now standing at a few percentage points shy of 1 out of 3 blog readers. Yet, as a group, you (the women) are largely lurkers unless I write about family stuff – Christmas, food, the home renovations a few years ago – which causes you to come out of the woodwork (e.g., case in point: The most commented post in the blog’s history was a recipe that my family took 10 years to perfect replicating the Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and a super-majority of the public replies were from women).
[mainbodyad]On the other hand, when I write about economics, statistics, science, accounting, video games, and finance, a significant percentage of female readers go silent, sending me private messages to discuss a topic further but rarely leaving their thoughts for public consumption. It’s incredible to me because among you are forces of nature with intellects, resumes, accomplishments, and net worths that would make a person’s jaw drop; who have no problem standing your own in even the fiercest debate but, nevertheless, you prefer one-on-one discussions. Why the gender divide in the way topics are discussed? I’d like to solve that someday when I have time to research it.
In any event, to the women out there who do publicly comment, I raise my coffee cup to you in thanks. I love seeing your contributions to the community and wish more of you would emerge from the shadows to join in the conversation.
Congratulations! For the first time ever, you are more likely than the general population to have children! Specifically, you are 1.07x more likely than the U.S. as a whole to have released your progeny upon the world. I’m sure you’ve already setup your DRIPs, UTMAs, and trust funds, right? Of course you have. You’re you. You don’t need reminding.
As for how you read the site:
- 62.08% of you read on a desktop or notebook computer
- 24.29% of you read on a mobile device
- 13.62% of you read on a tablet
As to which mobile and tablet devices you prefer, some highlights:
- 35.60% of you read on an Apple iPhone
- 30.68% of you read on an Apple iPad
- 1.70% of you read on a Samsung GT-I9300 S III
- 1.09% of you read on a Samsung GT-I9500 Galaxy S IV
- 1.01% of you read on an Apple iPod
- 0.84% of you read on a Google Nexus 7
Your browser preferences:
- 34.10% of you use Chrome
- 30.03% of you use Safari
- 14.44% of you use Internet Explorer
- 12.67% of you use Firefox
- 4.69% of you use some form of Android browser
A handful of interesting reading habits from the audience share and affinity scores:
- You are 130.0x more likely than the general Internet user to read financialsamurai.com.
- You are 63.0x more likely than the general Internet user to read theconservativeincomeinvestor.com, which is run by one of the popular commentators here that any regular reader of the site will recognize.
- You are 55.9x more likely than the general Internet user to read dividendgrowthinvestor.com, also written by a site regular many of you will recognize.
- You are 46.8x more likely than the general Internet user to read Dappered.com, a site about men’s fashion, clothing, drinks, shoes, travel, watches, grooming, etc.
- You are 33.2x more likely than the general Internet user to read zerohedge.com.
- You are 23.1x more likely than the general Internet user to read artofmanliness.com, which is about sports, clothes, career, and manly things.
- You are 23.0x more likely than the general Internet user to read SkyrimForums.com. (I’d be curious what type of class system the readership prefers. I almost always opt for destruction and conjuration mage. What are you all? It’d be interesting if a pattern emerged. Who knows? Maybe the community is disproportionately pickpocketing archers who carry out clandestine assassinations.)
- You are 22.9x more likely than the general Internet user to read theslowroasteditalian.com, a site devoted to simple Italian recipes. I’ve never even heard of it but now I’m going to have to go look.
- You are 22.6x more likely than the general Internet user to read thepointsguy.com, which tracks offers on rewards programs, credit cards, and more.
- You are 16.0x more likely than the general Internet user to research municipalities or zip codes on city-data.com. I highly approve. I use this site all the time as it is a great first-pass research tool.
- You are 15.3x more likely than the general Internet user to read GardenWeb.com, a community devoted to growing things including food and vegetables.
- You are 15.3x more likely than the general Internet user to read thefreshloaf.com, a website devoted to amateur artisan bakers and bread enthusiasts with a ton of recipes. I’ve never heard of this one, either! I know what I’ll be doing tonight.
- You are 15.1x more likely than the general Internet user to read the Christian Science Monitor, a news resource.
- You are 14.9x more likely than the general Internet user to read Wired.com, the tech and science site.
- You are 14.5x more likely than the general Internet user to read The Sweet Home, a site devoted to finding the best you can own in your house; e.g., the best rake for leaves, the best dishwasher.
- You are 13.7x more likely than the general Internet user to read Life Hacker for tips about optimizing your life efficiency.
- You are 13.7x more likely than the general Internet user to use, in some capacity, ukessays.com, either paying to have someone write a paper for you or, alternatively, selling your own writing to make cash from your intellectual capital.
- You are 13.1x more likely than the general Internet user to read American Banker. That’s a good trade resource right there.
- You are 10.9x more likely than the general Internet user to read Stack Exchange. What’s crazy, though, is that this blog and that site share a 15.3% overlap in readership; the highest numbers I could find.
- You are 10.3x more likely than the general Internet user to read Golf Digest.
- You are 10.1x more likely than the general Internet user to read Sally’s Baking Addiction. Those maple doughnuts look good …
- You are 9.3x more likely than the general Internet user to Read Men’s Fitness and 9.1x more likely to read Men’s Health.
- You are 9.1x more likely than the general Internet user to read Board Game Geek, a site devoted to board games including original editions.
With so many shared interests, maybe I should add a forum to the site. It wouldn’t be hard to install one and people wouldn’t have to carry on conversations solely in post comments, would be able to start their own topic, etc. Then, on the other hand, I really wouldn’t get anything done because I’d end up spending half my day talking with some of you about bread recipes, video game releases, Supreme Court cases, or Korean dramas. Google wouldn’t even know how to optimize it. It would be the most random collection of topics imaginable; dividend stocks, real estate properties, and debates on ancient philosophy or the need for a modern luddite movement to counteract the rise of artificial intelligence.
Speaking of real estate, there are a lot of you out there with a hand in the property markets. You are 8.7x more likely than the general Internet user to read forsalebyowner.com and 8.2x as likely to watch land, ranch, and farm sales at Land and Farm.
There are just pages and pages of data. You are 8.7x as likely to read Minimalist Baker. You are 8.3x more likely to browse auction listings at Live Auctioneers. You are 8.2x as likely to read American Lawyer. You really like your home theaters as you are 7.9x as likely to read Home Theater Forum. You apparently like to grill things, too, as you are 7.4x more likely to read about the science of smoking meat to get the perfect ribs or hamburgers. You also like to see the world as there is a big overlap in readers between this site and Fodor’s Travel Guides.
Finally, on that note, we’re more global than ever. Roughly 5.58% of you come from the United Kingdom, 5.51% from Canada, 2.68% from India, 2.62% from Australia, 1.16% from Singapore, 1.09% from South Africa, and just shy of 1%, each, from both The Netherlands and Germany.
[mainbodyad]
