Aug. 1st, 2005

dreamer_easy: (dead [by grifyn])
Recent discussions about whether online fans are entirely middle class - since only the middle class would have Internet access - prompted me to go rummaging for statistics on the socio-economic status of British net.users. The most recent government info online dates back to 2001, but gives us something to be going on with:

All adults - 51% had used the Internet
Professional - 78%
Intermediate - 65%
Skilled non-manual - 52%
Skilled manual - 37%
Partly skilled - 33%
Unskilled - 27%

It's not surprising that the more bucks you have, the more likely you are to have had net.access, and I feel sure the middle class dominates both the net and online fandom. However, it's immediately obvious that you don't have to be middle class to have Internet access, which explodes that belief straight away. (What these figures don't tell us is how much time each group is able to get online - for instance, what proportion of the less well-off have home access, and how many have easy access at work or through school.)

ETA: Very similar patterns in the US (see comment) and Australia (behind the cut). I'd say the middle-class-only claim is thoroughly squashed by the evidence.

Australian Internet users... )

My next question is: how much of the iceberg is below the water? That is, how much of fandom takes place offline?

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