#fandom demographics

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

The AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 was an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users conducted in January 2024. We have just finished posting our initial results, so here is just a taste of the graphs and data you can check out now over on AO3!

We will be continuing to work on this project in the New Year, so please make sure you follow this blog or subscribe to the project on AO3 to keep up to date.

A full list of the survey questions with links to the relevant data is below the cut!

Demographics

How old are you?

Do you identify as LGBTQ+ in any form?

What is your gender identity?

Do you identify as any of the following? (LGBTQ+ related identities)

What is your sexual orientation?

What is your romantic orientation?

What is your race?

Is English your native language?

Which geographic region best describes your current place of residence?

Which religious or spiritual tradition(s) do you believe?

Do you experience the following? (Disability, Neurodivergence, and Health Conditions)

Usage of AO3

Which of the following AO3 activities have you done in the last twelve months?

How frequently do you use the following methods to find works on AO3?

In a typical week, how long do you spend on AO3 or reading downloaded AO3 works?

When did you begin using AO3, with or without an account?

When did you create your first AO3 account?

What languages do you use for reading and posting on AO3?

Works You Post On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you post on AO3? (Media)

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works with the following ratings?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works focused on the following types of relationships?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post works in the following genres/tags?

Of the works you post on AO3, how often do you post the following types of works? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Works You Consume On AO3

Which of the following types of works do you consume on AO3? (Media)

How much do you enjoy works with the following ratings on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works focused on the following types of relationships on AO3?

How much do you enjoy works in the following genres/tags on AO3?

How much do you enjoy the following types of works on AO3? (Format & Miscellaneous)

Fandom Beyond AO3

Which of the following types of fanworks have you consumed in the last year?

Which of the following types of fandom activity have you done in the last year?

Which of the following websites or apps do you currently use for fandom activities at least once a month?

Which of the following websites or apps have you previously used for fandom activities, but no longer regularly use?

When did you first begin participating in fandom?

How many fandoms have you considered yourself a part of in the last five years?

Which of the following types of media do you participate in fandoms for?

[destinationtoast]

Bluesky & fandom education data

I'm on bsky now. I'm mildly active on Bluesky now (or "bisky" as I say it in my head thanks to the urls) at destinationtoast.bsky.social. Mostly meaning I'll be crossposting my more major fandom stats there and responding to being tagged, as I used to do on Twitter.

How educated is fandom? I just got tagged in a thread asking if I knew of any data about fandom education levels:

#FanStudies folks, I'm looking for information on educational attainment in fandom, particularly adult fans (≥25 yo). I've been through the Ao3 2013 & 2024 surveys; Fansplaining 2019 shipping & Overflow survey. No ?. I know acafans are a thing, but not numbers. Any suggestions?

— Justine Debelius (@jwoodelius.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 12:14 PM

I don't know any relevant research. If you do, please share!

For the heck of it, let's run an unscientific poll here, because everyone loves polls. Sorry for any US-centric terminology; I modified the categories from the US census but tried to internationalize.

(For those of you currently working on degrees, I salute you and wish you the best! 🫡 )

[koysiini-keinumaan]

Not long after Ruoska's release I made a survey that circulated Käärijä Twitter/X about demographics within the fanbase, though it never really made it to tumblr as I was not in this section of the fanbase back then. Should I post it here? (Please note it is a tad outdated - eg. doesn't include post-Ruoska songs)

[landscaping-your-mind]

So, I made this poll a while ago, shared it on instagram and my fic end notes first, it’s collecting data about the TMA fandom, so if you could answer it, reblog this, share the link, that would be really helpful and great!

It’s completely anonymous, and no questions are required, even completing just a few would be great! Feel free to make your own posts about it, I just want this poll shared around.

[y2keiji]

hiii bffs i am working on a video essay about parasocial relationships and if they influence the way we interact with fandom and shipping 🙏

would be very fun and cool if you would help an insane person (me) with this :3

[praetorqueenreyna]

Are we close to getting the results from the new survey? 👀

HONESTLY.....no 😂 I'm still working on reworking the data into a usable format for analysis. The contingency tables ESPECIALLY are a pain in the ass. Not to mention work has been crazy lately so I've been very busy and sleepy.

SO YEAH! Most optimistic timeline would have the results done by mid-August. Possibly the end of August. You're welcome to keep asking and check in though!

[centrumlumina]

Hello! How are you? I fell into a rabbit hole of research this afternoon, and one question I couldn't find an answer to is the socioeconomic makeup of fanfiction readers and writers (social origin, social class, highest diploma, occupation, income, etc). Do you have any insight on this? Could that be the topic of some questions for a future census?

This is absolutely an interesting question, but it's harder to ask about than you might think. The problem is that fandom is pretty international - different countries have wildly different ideas and experiences of class, and it can be very hard to compare them.

You can't simply convert currencies, because the relative cost of living in a given area has a huge impact, even within a single country. Educational achievement (i.e. highest degree) might be the most useful, but a lot of fandom is also under 21, i.e. probably not old enough to have finished undergrad.

If anyone has any further thoughts about this, you're welcome to come discuss it on the Discord for the upcoming AO3 Demographics Survey 2023: discord.gg/F5ArbfhQ

[destinationtoast]

Tags from @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly :

#i know a whole bunch of cishet guys who write fanfic #only a few are here on tumblr mind you but they are out there #and nobody i know personally is there but i'm aware spacebattles and alternatehistory are *huge* forums for fanfic written by cishet guys

Yeah, I think these results are very reflective of the fact that the poll is happening on Tumblr, and it would be really interesting to also run it on the sites you mention, and in various subreddits related to fanfic. If only that were easy to do!

That said, this poll is interesting to see, and @centrumlumina 's awesome 2013 AO3 Census survey (advertised on Tumblr) also yielded a highly queer and female/non-binary demographics breakdown (though 38% of those survey respondents said they were het, which is smaller than I had expected at the time but substantially higher than the above). It is fascinating to me how queer the AO3+Tumblr poll respondents are. There's a follow up demographics survey in the works, and I can't wait to see the results.

I just had a discussion with my friend about fanfiction and how we tend to assume that women are the writers without any actual proof. Then I said, hey, I know fanfiction written by gay and trans dudes. But then I remembered, wait, I think I know one writer who just must be cis het based on his work. Anyway, all writers, be honest, who are you?

Please reblog if you're interested in the results.

[miriam-heddy]

Poll: 9-1-1 ABC Gets ~ 10 Million Cross-Platform Viewers An Episode. That’s a pretty big “General Audience.”

[navsleftpec]

Bonus points if you explain why in the notes :-)

[ao3demographicssurvey2024]

In the AO3 Demographics Survey 2024 - an unofficial demographics survey of 16,131 AO3 users - 81% of respondents identified as LGBTQ+, and 25% identified as transgender.

To see more analysis, including comparisons to general population trends, please view the full results on AO3.

[meltedmush]

Keep making the Binghorse. We gotta ward off people from entering this fandom. We need to keep it pure. I fr don't want this fandom to become famous. I'm scared that there will be toxic fans left and right.

HAHA I absolutely understand the sentiment. I feel a bit contradictory since I want more people to appreciate SVSSS, but the at the same time I like small tight knit communities and I personally can’t handle large fandoms whatsoever. 😭

Although I do feel as though describing the SVSSS as pure is very funny for how lawless this fandom is. But behavior wise, it is definitely a very positive and supportive space!! I haven’t met anyone or seen anything unpleasant since I’ve entered the fandom. Albeit, it’s only been a few months since I’ve started interacting with the fandom, and over half a year since I first read SVSSS, so I have no clue what horror stories the SVSSS fandom has. (I honestly haven’t interacted with that many SVSSS fans tbh…. Even though I want to.)

In addition, funny enough, I feel as though the book almost acts as its own barrier of entry. SVSSS isn’t the type of book you can read once unless you’re good at reading against the grain and noticing all the nuances and subtext. I know the first time I read SVSSS, SVSSS disturbed and confused me so badly. I talked to a few other people who read SVSSS once, who said that LBH and SQQ’s relationship felt like Stockholm syndrome. But people who’ve read SVSSS several times will know, that is not the case, and that SQQ is an INSANELY UNRELIABLE narrator.

I honestly find it funny how effective Binghorse or all the other skin creatures is at filtering toxic fans.😂

There’s always a general reaction to the skin creatures: “Omg, cute!!”, “wtf, but I like it”, “wtf”. Or getting blocked, or death threats. (I haven’t received any…? I don’t think…? One message I received is definitely debatable since I can’t tell if it’s sarcastic or not….😭)

But regardless, I’ll definitely keep drawing Binghorse!!! It’s actually really enjoyable!

[aroaceleovaldez]

one of the things that I found particularly interesting in Demigods of Olympus is that it finally gives the best direct comparison we've seen so far between Percy and another character's experiences in terms of academics and particularly ableist discrimination.

The way Zane describes his experiences and what we see in his POV is that, while he is similarly discriminated against for his "atypical" behavior and blame is placed on him, the only sorts of punishments he receives for this are relatively benign, such as an increase in counseling. (It is also notable that Zane is somewhat autistic-coded, such as having the "incorrect" scripts when speaking with adults and Sam explicitly reminding him to remember to make proper eye contact.) Percy, on the other hand, similarly experiences discrimination for "atypical" behavior, but whereas Zane is treated as "too smart for his own good" and given slaps on the wrist, Percy is automatically labeled as aggressive, destructive, and a trouble-maker based on preconceived assumptions about him and is more severely punished, such as being frequently expelled.

We rarely get this level of direct comparison between Percy's experiences and that of another character, particularly such similar experiences, so looking at the differences is really interesting to gauge what their different experiences with ableist discrimination is like - and how it could potentially tie into intersectionality and other forms of discrimination at play for them.

For instance, Zane's parents are generally heavily implied to be middle-class and/or generally financially secure, versus Percy who grew up poor, so it could be classism in combination with ableist discrimination. Alternatively, it could be intersectionality with racial discrimination, as neurodivergent behavior in people of color is significantly more likely to be punished more severely and labeled as aggressive or disruptive behavior due to racist preconceptions - particularly since we know Percy's experiences with ableist discrimination are also somewhat based on assumptions people make regarding his appearance. Both Zane and Percy are racially ambiguous - Zane's appearance essentially being completely unspecified, but Percy at least having some notable details such as having a deep tan complexion. If not racism, it could also be colorism, which in this context often has similar intersectionality. There's a lot of potential options.

It's just very interesting to me! I love having such a direct point of comparison to examine the experiences of two characters within.

[fansplaining]

We were the ones who tagged Toast, of course 🥰. Help add to the fandom data pool!

Bluesky & fandom education data

I'm on bsky now. I'm mildly active on Bluesky now (or "bisky" as I say it in my head thanks to the urls) at destinationtoast.bsky.social. Mostly meaning I'll be crossposting my more major fandom stats there and responding to being tagged, as I used to do on Twitter.

How educated is fandom? I just got tagged in a thread asking if I knew of any data about fandom education levels:

#FanStudies folks, I'm looking for information on educational attainment in fandom, particularly adult fans (≥25 yo). I've been through the Ao3 2013 & 2024 surveys; Fansplaining 2019 shipping & Overflow survey. No ?. I know acafans are a thing, but not numbers. Any suggestions?

— Justine Debelius (@jwoodelius.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 12:14 PM

I don't know any relevant research. If you do, please share!

For the heck of it, let's run an unscientific poll here, because everyone loves polls. Sorry for any US-centric terminology; I modified the categories from the US census but tried to internationalize.

(For those of you currently working on degrees, I salute you and wish you the best! 🫡 )