Demographics aid in the interpretation of survey data by defining categories for grouping individuals of populations to make the study and interpretation of survey results easier and more insightful. For example, gender, age, race, and nationality are a few common demographic groups in which individuals are often assigned membership to.
Demographics are important to consider and understand when interpreting survey results because they provide insight into what groups of people are and are not participating in the surveys. They provide insight into what demographics consider a particular topic important and where more survey topic education and awareness is needed for the lower percentages or missing demographics. For example, if the survey results data is skewed to only a few demographics, that may indicate that more awareness of the survey topic amongst other demographics is needed or perhaps it’s something that’s not important or relevant to them.
Some surveys have stated objectives to study a specific demographic or population while for other surveys, it’s to generate and study data across wide randomly stratified populations that target many demographics. For other surveys, there are no stated demographic study objectives as the survey’s primary data collection method is unstructured and inclusive of all participants. The latter provides an opportunity to gain insight into what demographics in general are interested in the survey topic and are participating in the survey and which are not.
Age, gender, and race, three common demographics, are examined in this section for the survey years 2014 through and including 2019.
The age of participants for the focused years is roughly following a normal distribution curve. 95% of the respondents are within the age range of 20 to 50 years old.
Examining gender percentages of the survey years reveals that most survey respondents identify as Male, but that percentage has slightly decreased since 2014 while the Female and Other gender category percentages have increased during that time.
Looking at the race of the respondents for the survey study years reveals that mostly white people are responding to the survey and that remained consistent across the survey years. It may be necessary to reach out to other racial groups to determine whether there is a lack of interest in the topic or whether there is a need to generate more awareness.
Geographic demographics are interesting to investigate as they may highlight hidden insight regarding where survey topics are something that a locale, region, or geography deems important. Similarly, it can also highlight what regions are not responding. In the latter case, the survey provider may wish to investigate why that’s the case and possibly apply more resources and focus to the region to create awareness and education of the subject matter. Below are two visualizations that illustrate what countries and US states are participating, their overall rank with other countries and states, and the respondent’s genders in those regions.
