EP 2008 Survey Results

The survey question about where listeners are located can be compared with site logs that track visits by country. In November, for example, about 28% of EP's traffic was from visitors outside the United States. In the survey, exactly 28% of respondents report being outside the U.S. That's got to be a coincidence but it makes me stop and think. Check! There was another survey question, an open-ended question, about which guests were most popular. I figured it would be too much trouble to exhaustively count up responses and compare them to exact site logs but just eyeballing the most mentioned guests' names I'm sure that those were also, by and large, the most downloaded shows. Check! Another survey question, however, asked whether you've donated to EP, and 36% responded in the affirmative. Well, only about 3-4% of EP listeners have donated, so in that sense the sample is clearly not representative. Bzzzt! Finally, I thought it was statistically interesting, though I'm not sure just how to interpret it, that responses were very consistent over time: once about 20 people had taken the survey the overall percentage results for most questions didn't change very much with additional respondents. I didn't keep track of this precisely but was very surprised to notice it and did watch for any large changes (there weren't any). Why would sample consistency be a good thing? I suppose it shows that something is being measured accurately.

OK, keeping all this in mind and taking results with a grain of salt, here's what we find:

Age breakdown is almost exactly the same as the past two years. The 40-59 year old group is the median and also 50% of the total. Only one listener, 2%, below the age of 25 (my guess is that for three years in a row this group has been slightly undercounted).

Gender, however, has changed from the past two years, where in each previous survey women reported in at about 1%. This year it's 10%, and that tracks well with emails listeners send to me as well as donations. Thank goodness more women are listening! Still not enough, but the change is in the right direction. To be honest, this aspect of the EP audience is one of the things that most puzzles me — I don't fret about it much but I definitely prefer a better balance.

The past three years education levels have stayed about the same, sort of an "NPR-plus" demographic. Somewhat more respondents than in previous years, 44%, report having a BA, while the numbers for advanced degress remain about the same with 7% having an MA, 15% an advanced professional degree, and 11% a Ph.D. The very high consistency found across three years may well be a sample artifact but on the other hand I deliberately pitch the shows at a fairly high level and I know from listener emails that people 'get it.' If this is indeed a true finding, Kudos to everyone! You deserve to be proud of your educational accomplishments.

About half of EP listeners are politically active. Of EP listeners who are American citizens 83% voted in November. Good for you! I know that my views are a bit contradictory on this point as I'm more than skeptical whether we even have a democracy in America and whether the government is, indeed, legitimate. But voting, to me, is a kind of social sacrament and, besides, by voting you earn the right to complain.

39% of listeners describe themselves as "very liberal," 33%, the next largest group, as "other" (a blend of Social Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, Populists, Socialist Paleocons, Communists, and Mutts). Nobody identified themselves as "moderately conservative" or "very conservative." No surprise there...

About 24% of listeners have been listening for three years. Wow! But, again, that tracks with emails. And about 40% for two years. What seems to be happening is that as the EP audience grows — and it's growing very, very slowly — it gains a few more listeners than it loses but overall the audience is quite stable. To me this is a very interesting finding. And while I have no idea of what the comparison would be to radio or television programs it seems to me that you all show a great deal of loyalty to EP. Thank you for that!

As noted in a previous post more respondents than in past years report listening to the EP podcast every week, though on double checking the numbers I now think the change was statistically meaningless, so scratch my earlier discussion about the "long tail."

More than half of you report listening to several podcasts a week, another fascinating finding. Indeed, about fifty respondents provided long lists of shows. I'm impressed. And it's very helpful to me to check what other podcasters are doing, so I'm glad I asked this question.

I'm relieved once again to learn that the length of the shows is just fine the way it is. Most of you, 78%, like having a format that varies with guest and subject and, confirming that, 87% say they wouldn't listen more often if the shows were shorter.

I won't even attempt to summarize the other parts of the survey that have been most helpful: the question about what you want more of, the optional question to talk about yourself, and the question about your political priorities. There's so much there that it'll take me a while to sort it out in my mind. But believe me when I tell you that knowing more about you is a great motivation for me — lots of gears are spinning in my head and I've got a couple notions already for new things I may try doing.

So stay tuned!

And thanks again for all your help!