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I imagine that SE tracks IP addresses and keeps a chart of where people are coming from. It helps with advertising and legal decisions.

I know SE doesn't require you to tell, but what do we know of the racial and gender demographics?

If there really are no directly meaningful stats, as I suspect there is not, then what can we infer from the stats we do have?

For example, we probably know where a lot of users log in from, and we can easily look up the average demographics of those areas. We can also look up demographics for this site's topic. We can also take into consideration that a large percentage of us seems to be involved in professional IT work, so we can utilize stats from that industry as well. Can at least a best guess be made as to the racial and gender proportions of Christianity.SE?

As a last ditch, would it be appropriate to hold a poll here on meta or somewhere else?

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2 Answers 2

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Estimates of reader demographics are available on Quantcast. Scroll down to Demographics, and hit the "Composition" option. It says:

  • 51% male
  • 20% between ages 35 and 44
  • 71% Caucasian

The Business & Occupation section says:

  • 1.93 times as likely to work in a non-profit than a typical internet user
  • 1.2 times as likely to work in IT than a typical internet user

Obviously, take this with a grain of salt; it's tough to know how accurate it is. In the Business & Occupation section, for example, if you switch the data source, the results vary widely.

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  • Interesting, but certainly a category error if we assume reader demographics are representative of user demographics also. Considering the variance your mention and also this being about readership I'm not sure how useful this can be.
    – user3961
    Jan 19, 2016 at 20:16
  • @fredsbend So you are specifically wondering about registered users, then?
    – Nathaniel is protesting
    Jan 19, 2016 at 20:25
  • Anyone who posts, so anonymous users too.
    – user3961
    Jan 19, 2016 at 21:58
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    Quantcast estimates that we get 80% more African American visitors than the average website, which is a good sign I would think.
    – curiousdannii Mod
    Jan 20, 2016 at 3:50
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Quantcast also gives the top sources of traffic by city.

Some of the top non-Caucasian cities are:

  • Seoul (Korea), 2.4% of visitors
  • Lagos (Nigeria), 0.88%
  • Singapore, 0.88%
  • Makati (Philippines), 0.74%
  • Johannesburg (South Africa), 0.55%
  • Nairobi (Kenya), 0.48%
  • Bangalore (India), 0.42%
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  • 2
    This is proof that the site is wickedly racist.
    – Mr. Bultitude
    Jan 20, 2016 at 17:01
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    @Mr.Bultitude Do you think it could be proof that the site is wickedly Anglophonic?
    – Dick Harfield
    Jan 24, 2016 at 2:24
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    Incidentally, if I read Quantcast correctly, African-Americans are disproportionately represented. Am I right, anyone?
    – Dick Harfield
    Jan 24, 2016 at 2:30

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