The "PFC Bubble" = Some facts on the demographics of Reddit Users in Canada

[resjudicata]

@cleatun We don't "need" to do jack.

Some may choose to do similar to you, others will not.

Welcome to planet earth

 

[chashathaway]

@polly%EF%BC%81 If you're male, think about the sub-reddits you're subscribed to or frequent. What do you think the odds are that there's a higher chance other males would be interested in those sub-reddits? Now, repeat this same thought experiment as if you were female. What sub-reddits would you more likely be subscribed to?

I'm not so much asking you to picture any particular sub-reddit, but more to consider the concept that by definition Person A would be attracted more towards things that typically attract people like Person A. Unless every single sub-reddit on this site was split evenly 50/50 between male and female, you'd expect that male and female redditors would tend to frequent sub-reddits that are skewed more towards their gender.

 

[crazy950]

@chashathaway Exactly. It's called self segregation. This happens in gender, race, culture, religion.... And above all, language.

For those of you who really care about this topic, I strongly recommend you check out non political subs that are almost all female. Then check out non political subs that are almost all male.

Pay close attention to the use of gendered usernames.

Pay close attention to the way each gender talks.

 

[simran123]

@polly%EF%BC%81 Reddit consists of both male and female single basement dwellers. Source: OP

 

[raphotai]

@polly%EF%BC%81 Female probably tends to go on sub-reddit that you don't typically go.

 

[sophiahiddenlight]

@raphotai In your experience, what sites do female STEM graduates with great jobs frequent?

 

[michael1928]

@sophiahiddenlight TrollXX, Firey Femmes, Working Moms (dependent on lifestyle and family makeup, obviously)

 

[pen15lover]

@zelisky Many commenters are glossing over a key point OP made: these figures are for Reddit in general, and do not necessarily capture the demographics of PFC. Obviously the two distributions are related - regular PFC visitors will be drawn from that larger population of regular Reddit users. But I would expect PFC’s distribution of visitors to have its own skew (and I’d expect it to be significantly different along certain axes, such as income.)

This is not a criticism. I think the information OP has presented is quite interesting! This is just a reminder to folks who may have missed an important qualifying statement.

 

[zelisky]

@pen15lover Thanks! It's an important point you've made. Unfortunately, even Reddit staff wouldn't be able to know the make-up of PFC subreddit (since they wouldn't have accurate demographic, geographic and psychographic data)... so at best everything here is directional.

However, to your point: I did a quick pull of Canadian Reddit monthly visitors who also state that they are interested in economics / personal finance as of Q1/Q2 2020 (n=847, so not quite as big a sample as my main post). What it shows is:

• Even higher male skew (68% male/32% female) although almost identical age skewing
• Slightly more likely to be high HHI ($80k+ represents 43.1%) and slightly less likely to be HHI $50k or less (28.8% of Canadian Redditors interested in finance have this HHI)

I suppose the point I was making is: Reddit (and PFC as a subset) does skew younger, but the collective "we" represent all walks of Canadian life and income levels, and we all are interested in becoming more knowledgeable about finances.

 

[pen15lover]

@zelisky Thanks, this is interesting information.

My understanding is that a household income of $80,000 sits right around the 60th percentile in Canada, so that’s more in line with the general population than I’d expected. I was not anticipating the more severe gender skew. Just goes to show that intuitions can’t be trusted!

 

[zelisky]

@pen15lover Yes, households making a combined $80k or under represent 63% of Canadians 16-64 according to GlobalWebIndex. Those making a combined $100k or less represent 75%! If you have a HHI over $165k, you're in the top 6% of Canadian households.

 

[danisean69]

@zelisky Maybe we could make an r/PFC census?

 

[noblemouse]

@pen15lover Yes, a very important qualifier. Not that there isn’t overlap, but it’s clear people taking data that may or may not be relevant and applying it to a specific subset.

 

[adkchappy]

@zelisky

42% live with their partner (about 1/5 less than the Canadian average) -- 26.9% live with their parents (nearly 60% higher than average), 17.2% with other family, 10.3% with a roommate -- again, this is largely due to the younger skew of Reddit users

Wait, are you saying that I'm part of only 3.6% living alone?

 

[zelisky]

@adkchappy Well, here's where panel data gets a bit weird, since people can live with their parents and a partner, so the answers aren't cumulative. I just highlighted a few points, and skipped 3 other data points:

• 15.4% live alone (so you're part of the 1 in 7 that live alone)
• 27.9% live with their children (again, possibly also with parents or other family, etc.)
• 2.5% state they live with "Others" (not entirely sure what that means, maybe work colleagues, etc.?)

Using the same research panel: of all Canadians 16-64, 17.5% live alone -- in other words, about 1 in 6 Canadians live alone. The breakdown by age is:

Age
% of Live Alone

16-24
10.3%

25-34
17.6%

35-44
16.8%

45-54
20%

55-64
22.8%

So you're definitely not alone, in living alone.

 

[polly%EF%BC%81]

@adkchappy I don't know a lot of people who have ever lived alone. Just myself and one other developer.