Stoic Week 2015 Demographics Report
by Tim LeBon
Thank you all for completing the preliminary questionnaires. We had a massive 2503 valid completed questionnaires – an increase of about 66% over 2014.
In a sentence: the typical Stoic week follower is an American male aged between 26 and 35 who has never participated in Stoic week before and knows a bit about Stoicism (not a complete novice).
In more depth:
- The ratio of males to females is 65% to 35%
- There is an upside down U distribution of ages, with it peaking at 26-35 closed followed by 36-45
- Over 41% of respondents are from USA, but in terms of per capita Canada is top (well done Donald!) and then the UK. There is scope for much more uptake in Asia, Africa and South America.
- The majority of respondents have never participated in Stoic week before, about 22% have participated before
- There is an upside-down U distribution of self-rated knowledge of Stoicism, with “know a bit about Stoicism” being most frequent.
Here are 5 tables summarising all the facts and figures.
Table 1: Stoic Week 2015 by gender
|
Gender |
Total |
% |
| Male | 1616 | 64.6 |
| Female | 868 | 34.7 |
| didn’t say | 19 | 0.8 |
Table 2: Stoic Week 2015 by age
| Age | Total | % |
| over 55 | 416 | 16.6 |
| 46-55 | 446 | 17.8 |
| 36-45 | 565 | 22.6 |
| 26-35 | 618 | 24.7 |
| 18-25 | 406 | 16.2 |
| Under 18 | 45 | 1.8 |
| didn’t say | 7 | 0.3 |
Table 3: Stoic Week 2015 by geographic location
| Location | Total | % |
| USA | 1048 | 41.9 |
| Australasia | 126 | 5.0 |
| Canada | 398 | 15.9 |
| Europe (outside UK)) | 362 | 14.5 |
| UK | 412 | 16.5 |
| Africa | 18 | 0.7 |
| Asia | 56 | 2.2 |
| South & Central America | 34 | 1.4 |
| Other | 49 | 2.0 |
Table 4: Stoic Week 2015 : Previous participation
| Number of times participated in Stoic Weeks previously | Total | % |
| 0 | 1941 | 77.5 |
| 1 | 402 | 16.1 |
| 2 | 111 | 4.4 |
| 3 | 43 | 1.7 |
| Other | 6 | 0.2 |
Table 5: Stoic Week 2015 : Self-rating of knowledge of Stoicism
| Knowledge of Stoicism | Total | % |
| None | 328 | 13.1 |
| Novice | 788 | 31.5 |
| I know a bit | 961 | 38.4 |
| I know quite a bit but not an expert | 403 | 16.1 |
| expert | 23 | 0.9 |
An analysis of the relationship between Stoicism and well-being that can be gleaned from the preliminary questionnaires will be published next week.
I can be contacted on tim@timebon.com (http://www.timlebon.com)
I didn’t officially participate this year as I am certainly not a novice. I wish I had though although I do live Stoicism daily as we certainly need to get more women involved! Thank you for all of the hard work in getting this organized every year!
Interesting statistics, thank you for taking the time to share them.
I did not officially participate in Stoic Week 2015 either. Unfortunately, I was a day too late to sign up, but I did fill out a questionnaire and have been listening to the podcasts and meditations everyday and reading articles on my own, and have received a wealth of meaningful information and knowledge just from this website alone. I am optimistic and grateful.
What’s the age distribution for females? I’m guessing those of us that participate in stoic week skew older…
There needs to be a Stoic week in Wasington, DC or New York City sometime or some other locale in the USA. Please consider this. I have contemplated coming to UK many times but I couldn’t make it unfortunately.