Demo-Graphics: Comic Fandom on Facebook – European Edition
We hinted at the return of some long-shelved regular features on the site, and the first back is Demo-Graphics! Earlier this month, we ran the statistics for comic fans within the United States and today (after a bit of a delay) we’re back with the second reporting of statistics from Europe!
What is Demo-Graphics?
Each month I dive into data from Facebook looking at the various demographics it can tell us about comic fans. This isn’t hard numbers but best used to show trends in the industry and the potential of the market out there. This has shown the shift towards women being a major force in readers and a shift to the younger demographic.
How does it work?
We use key terms, “likes”, that users have indicated and have come up with our own set to measure each month. There’s over 50 terms used (and no I won’t release them). We stick to specific terms for the industry such as “comics” and “graphic novels” and “one-shots” as well as publishers and leave out broad terms like specific characters or stories. Just because someone likes Batman doesn’t mean they like comics.
Other things to know…
This data is important in that it shows who the potential comic audience could be. These are not purchasers, these are people who have shown an affinity for comics and are potential purchasers and those with an interest.
Also, with this being online/technology, due to laws and restrictions, those under the age of 13 are underrepresented.
Since the last time this feature was run, Facebook has made adjustments as to what it can report so some data is no longer available and we’ve also added in new data that hasn’t been reported before (but some of it has been tracked over the years).
Facebook Population: Over 100,000,000 in Europe
That’s an increase of 2 million compared to the previous month. That’s 33 million more individuals compared to what I reported for the United States earlier this week.
Gender and Age
Interestingly, men account for the majority of fans. They account for 51.0% of the population compared to 50% of women. That’s a flip of the statistics in the United States where women are the majority. When looking at the data broken down by ages, women are a slight majority with about 2 million more individuals. So, it’s best to probably think of this fandom as pretty split between men and women.
There can be issues when breakdowns like this are close on Facebook as the app tends to round up and down with large numbers causing discrepancies and results greater than 50%.
Similar to the previous month, things remain the same with men becoming a slim majority in the age 22-25 age group and then lose it in the 34-37 age group. It’s a similar statistic to the United States.
Relationship Status
Compared to last month’s results things have changed slightly. While the overall population grew about 2 million, these stats increased about 1.4 million.
Highlights:
- “In Relationship” increased by 200,000
- “Unspecified” increased by 1 million
- “Domestic Partnership” increased by 10,000
- “Divorced” increased by 10,000
- “Widowed” increased by 10,000
Education
Things remain pretty steady when it comes to education. The percentages remain pretty much unchanged.
Up next, we’ll compare the two groups of comic fans!