Doing research for another post, I stumbled across a fascinating report on blogging statistics and demographics put out by Caslon Analytics, an Australian consulting firm that specializes in providing data and strategies concerning “electronic publishing, marketing, commerce and regulation of the net.”
If there is anything you ever wanted to know about blogging–its history, its usage, its demographics, etc.–check out their blogging section. I have compiled a few of the more interesting excerpts on blogging statistics below:
Millions of People Write and Read Blogs
Technorati noted claims by ad group Universal McCann in March 2008 that 184 million people “have started a blog” (alas, no figures on how many have stopped maintaining a blog) and that 346 million people read blogs in 2007. comScore MediaMetrix claimed in mid-2008 that there were 77.7 million blog readers in the US. eMarketer drew on other figures to suggest that there were 94.1 million US readers.
The Number of Active Blogs is Declining
David Sifry reported in April 2007 that growth in the number of blogs created had slowed – “matured” – with other observers noting that the percentage of active blogs are compared to the total number of blogs tracked by Technorati was declining, down from 36.71% in May 2006 to 20.93% in March 2007.
The average blog has a “lifespan of a fruitfly”
[A] Perseus report…indicates that 66.0% of surveyed blogs had not been updated in two months, “representing 2.72 million blogs that have been either permanently or temporarily abandoned”.
Jeffrey Henning of Perseus sniffed that
“Apparently the blog-hosting services have made it so easy to create a blog that many tire-kickers feel no commitment to continuing the blog they initiate. In fact, 1.09 million blogs were one-day wonders, with no postings on subsequent days.”
Perseus claimed that the average duration of the remaining 1.63 million abandoned blogs was 126 days, with some 132,000 blogs being abandoned after a year or more. The oldest abandoned blog surveyed had been maintained for 923 days.
Blogs Are the Playground of the Young
Perseus’ The Blogging Iceberg commented that,
“Teenagers have created the majority of blogs. Blogs are currently the province of the young, with 92.4% of blogs created by people under the age of 30. Half of bloggers are between the ages of 13 and 19. Following this age group, 39.6% of bloggers are between the ages of 20 and 29.”
Twitter is the New Blogging
Robert Scoble thus sniffed in 2007 that
“there’s a bigger trend I’m seeing: people who used to enjoy blogging their lives are now moving to Twitter. Andrew Parker punctuates that trend with a post “Twitter is ruining my blogging”. I find that to be the case too and when I talked about this on Twitter a raft of people chimed in and agreed that they are blogging a lot less now that Twitter is here.”
The Office Newb 
Nice summary of facts.
I have moved from Luddite to someone who is trying to embrace everything. I have a commitment to blog _and_ twitter so I don’t find that one precludes the other. Others are different, I guess.
I liked how one person said, “Twitter is ruining my blogging” as if their locus of control moved from their own consciousness to the whims of 3rd party web sites. Funny.
I don’t really understand how Twitter can “ruin” blogging. Twitter is pretty much one’s status update, which has been available via social networking sites and instant messaging for a long time (even longer with IM). Twitter/microblogging should complement blogging, but not replace it. I do it all the time for my blogzine. With enough people following you, you get more people to read the blog. More readers=a good thing.
Cynthia,
I actually agree with you about Twitter (by the way, thanks for the follow!). Since the above quote was taken from 2007, I’m guessing this was just fear of new software by early bloggers.
We’re much more sophisticated than them!