Thursday, January 05, 2006

The Great Canadian Blog Survey

Offering a look at "a snapshot of the Canadian blogosphere in 2005", the results of The Great Canadian Blog Survey, as compiled by Aaron Braaten and CanadianEconomist.com, can be found online here. The survey was conducted over a period of three weeks in September, 2005. It asked bloggers and blog readers various questions that enable in-depth analysis along 25 different variables. Overall, 1146 responses were collected.

General Interest:
50.3% of Canadian bloggers and blog readers are between the age of 18 and 35.
• Bloggers and blog readers as a whole had an increased probability of being married when compared to the Canadian population in general.
• 71.5% of Canadian bloggers and blog readers are male whereas 28.5% are female.
• 47.7% of respondents earned $45,000 per year or less. Alternately stated, 52.3% of respondents earned an annual salary above $45,000 per year.
• Canadian bloggers and blog readers tend to be more highly educated than the Canadian population in general. The largest clustering of education levels was around the Bachelor’s level, with 56% of respondents reporting a level of education at or beyond the Bachelor’s level (Master’s and Doctoral).
• Bloggers and blog readers are more likely to be unemployed than the average Canadian.
• Bloggers tend to be younger than blog readers.
• Bloggers had a greater tendency to be single, whereas blog readers had a greater tendency to be married.
• Blog readers had a higher tendency to be male than bloggers.
• Blog readers reported higher incomes than bloggers did. This supports the theory that blogging entails an opportunity cost of time – the higher the income, the less likely one is to blog.
• Bloggers were more likely than blog readers to have attained a level of education equal to Bachelor’s and Masters level. Blog readers were more likely to have a Doctoral degree than bloggers.
• Blog readers tend to spend slightly less time reading blogs than bloggers, but this difference is minimal.
• Blog readers generally read fewer blogs per day than bloggers do.