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Actual Demographics of Occupy Wall Street


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2011 Oct 19, 10:35am   4,130 views  5 comments

by corntrollio   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

A prof did a study. Here are some details:

http://occupywallst.org/media/pdf/OWS-profile1-10-18-11-sent-v2-HRCG.pdf

Here is the executive summary from the author, which is currently posted on Occupy Wall Street's website:

The Occupy Wall Street movement has galvanized the attention of the world by organizing the largest demonstrations in this country as a response to the Great Recession caused by our financial and political leaders. Data from a survey of 1,619 respondents from a survey placed on occupywallst.org suggests that there is a huge undercurrent of mainstream dissatisfaction with traditional political party affiliations as well a huge amount of support for radical change in the United States of America.

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92.5% of respondents either somewhat or strongly supported the protests with most respondents indicating strong support.
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1/4th of the sample (or 24.2%) participated in the Occupy Wall Street protests as of October 5, 2011.
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91.8% of the sample thinks that the Occupy Wall Street Protests will continue to grow.

In terms of demographic characteristics of the sample, we found that,

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64.2% of respondents were younger than 34 years of age.
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While the sample is relatively young, one in three respondents is older than 35 and one in five respondents is 45 and older.
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7.9% of respondents have a high school degree or less.
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92.1% of the sample has some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree.
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27.4% have some college (but no degree), 35% have a college degree, 8.2% have some graduate school (but no degree), and close to 21.5% have a graduate school degree.
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This is a highly educated sample.
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26.7% of respondents were enrolled in school and 73.3% were not enrolled in school.
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50.4% were employed full-time and an additional 20.4% were employed part-time.
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13.1% of the sample are unemployed.
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2.6% of respondents were retired, 1.3% disabled, 2.6% homemakers and 9.7% are full-time students.
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47.5% of the sample earns less than $24,999 dollars a year and another quarter (24%) earn between $25,000 and $49,999 per year.
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71.5% of the sample earns less than $50,000 per year.
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15.4% of the sample earned between $50,000 and $74,999.
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The remainder 13% of the sample earn over $75,000 with close to 2% earning over $150,000 per year.
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27.3% of respondents considered themselves Democrats, another 2.4% said they were Republican.
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Interestingly, a very large proportion of the sample, close to 70.3%, considered themselves Independents.
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66.4% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use Facebook.
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28.9% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use Twitter.
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73.9% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use YouTube.
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Our data suggest that the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%.

Clearly these aren't just out of work hippies. The fact that 47.5% make $25K and below and 24% make between $25K and $50K is actually quite significant. Median household income in the US is just a shade under $50K (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032010/rdcall/1_001.htm). So if 47.5% of individuals are making $25K and below, that sets Occupy Wall Street right around the median if households have 2 people.

The employment numbers check out, and notice that while 26.7% are students, 9.7% are full-time students who don't have jobs, so even 17% of the students are also working.

Less than a quarter identified as Democrats.

#politics

Comments 1 - 5 of 5        Search these comments

1   EightBall   2011 Oct 19, 11:58pm  

You do realize that this survey is total BS -

On October 5, for
example, there were close to 350,346 visits to occupywallst.org and a survey was added to the site to
measure levels of interest and involvement in Occupy Wall Street and to get a sense of the
characteristics of persons visiting the site

This was a web survey of people visiting the occupy wall street web site. Reporting this as factual or on par with a real "poll" is as disingenuous as touting a fox news website poll showing that most people think Obama is a muslim. Ever heard of the phrase "garbage in, garbage out"? I often disagree with you but I did think you were smart enough to know the difference between facts and fiction.

2   Bap33   2011 Oct 20, 12:23am  

don't go messing up the feeling with the facts!!

I'm suprized these idiobots didn't just do the whole protest thingy in a cyber world -- like a Sim Game App for their itoy. That way they could stay comfy on mom's couch and keep the bud burning.

3   TPB   2011 Oct 20, 12:37am  

That study is flawed from the onset. The Prof. is not likely to accost the neerdowells, and would most likely gravitate toward the educated.

"1/4th of the sample (or 24.2%) participated in the Occupy Wall Street protests as of October 5, 2011."

Then out of those he actually sampled, only 24% were actually there.

4   mdovell   2011 Oct 20, 1:34am  

Hard to really say as "supporters" is general..people on the streets are another.

I saw "occupy boston" the other day...I really wasn't impressed. The boston one is actually causing a ton of crap in the city..they've blocked off a area that food vendors (local merchants) were going to use. They are ALSO in a area that is a greenway that was created after the end of the big dig project. It's a nice green area in the middle of the city so to see it with pup tents is kinda sad.

The problem I see with the occupy groups is frankly 99% of the people cannot afford to camp someplace without responsibilities to family, friends, pets and take time off of work.

Protests don't end anything. They didn't end vietnam, kosovo, iraq (either time) etc. Protesting for rights is one thing..womens sufferage, civil rights (although that was used with a greyhound bus boycott) or gay rights (this isn't even anything close to stonewall)

They are treating this as if it is a european strike where everything grinds to a halt. Well it isn't. Some even paid money to travel to these sites that nullifies much of the purpose of "I don't have money". If they took that money and simply shopped locally it would help the economy more than this.
www.the350project.net/home.html

5   corntrollio   2011 Oct 20, 8:23am  

EightBall says

This was a web survey of people visiting the occupy wall street web site. Reporting this as factual or on par with a real "poll" is as disingenuous as touting a fox news website poll showing that most people think Obama is a muslim.

No one said it was a scientific study meeting all kinds of rigorous standards. Nonetheless, big decisions are made based on those surveys done on all kinds of websites with respect to marketing and product. I'm not so sure surveys like this are completely invalid, as they are generally good at getting a reading on user intent.

I certainly wouldn't equate it with one of those idiot polls on Fox. People had to disclose a lot more info on this survey, so it's not just a one click and out thing. If anything, the most enthusiastic folks are likely to fill this survey out.

Also, as PasadenaNative posted in another thread:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-boykin/occupy-wall-street-media_b_1019707.html

Again, the idea is to dispel the myths about Occupy Wall Street that certain people are spreading, not to state that this is a scientific study or even that whether I am politically aligned with them.

EightBall says

I often disagree with you but I did think you were smart enough to know the difference between facts and fiction.

Careful there. The survey is based on fact -- these results are exactly how people responded. What you are saying is opinion.

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