The Pew Internet and American Life Project have announced study results into the state of American Blogging. Get the full PDF study here. Some of their results include:
– 8 million American adults say they have created blogs (around 7% of the population);
– blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users (ie around 32 million American blog readers);
– 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online;
– 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs;
– 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is.
Interesting results that fit pretty well with the anecdotal evidence I collect from conversations here in Australia also. Most people still don’t know what a blog is – but when you dig a little you find that many people have actually been reading them without knowing what a blog actually is.
Jeff has some good things to say about this study – especially this analysis of their demographics findings:
‘Some demographics. Blog creators are likely to be:
: Men: 57% are male
: Young: 48% are under age 30
: Broadband users: 70% have broadband at home
: Internet veterans: 82% have been online for six years or more
: Relatively well off financially: 42% live in households earning over $50,000
: Well educated: 39% have college or graduate degrees
None of this surprising: It’s a profile of early adopters. That was the profile of internet users a few years ago but today, internet users are better reflecting the country. This is the profile of internet creators; this, too, will go more mainstream. But the effort required to create will always separate those who instead read. And the reading numbers are growing even faster as the audience for blogs explodes:’
