Reddit K-pop Census 2016 Results

[u/hubwub]

The census is now over. What does the census show us about the growth of the subreddit since it was last taken?

TALKING POINTS

GENERAL

• There has been an increase in the amount of response to this year's census. 3,000 more compared to last year's. (2016: 6465, 2015: 3426)
• Still have remained the same in regards to target demographic being between the ages of 18-24. However, we've seen an increase in the 13-17 and 25-34 age bracket this year.
• Last year, it was 60% male redditors in the subreddit to a 40% female redditors. This year we've seen an increase in female subredditors for the subreddit at 42.6% while the amount of male redditors has decreased to 56%.
• In regards to the sexuality of the redditors in the subreddit. Predominantly, they affiliated themselves as being straight. While, there has been an increase in all other categories compared to last year.
• It seems like that a 44.4% of the subreddit are still students that are unemployed. But there have been increases to other answers in the category.
• Last year, most of the redditors on the subreddit were predominantly Caucasian / White. This year, Asian or Pacific Islander has come out as the dominant ethnicity in the subreddit.
• Almost 50% of the subredditors on this subreddit are from the USA. Yet, there are only 42 people on this subreddit currently living in South Korea which is an increase from last year.
• Far too many single people on this subreddit. A whooping 80%. To quote a famous song, "Sexy, Free & Single. I’m ready too, Bingo!"

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KPOP

• Redditors still prefer using streaming services to buy/obtain their K-pop music. However, we've still got folks who like buying digital downloads and physical albums. The good ole' piracy still exists. One thing about this question is that it was a multiple choice answer which means there could be users who could be using a combination of all the answers available.
• Y'all should give your friends or family a hug! Why? It seems like a significant amount of redditors got exposed to K-pop via their Friend/Family/Significant Other. Yet, suprisingly we've seen an increase in regards to exposure via just browsing YouTube this year.
• There is a great spread in regards to the how far redditors in the subreddit have been listening to K-pop. However, 16.6% of redditors have been only listening for over a year to two years. This year was the first time we added a decade as an option to listening to K-pop, we got 276 people who have been listening for A LONG TIME.
• Not much has changed in which redditors only know a little it of Korean or don't know any. But, there has been an increase to amount of fluent and moderate knowledge of the Korean language. So yay!
• BALLOONS FOR EVERYBODY! It's good to know that we are your number one source for all things K-pop.
• Y'all are crazy. Thanks for visiting the subreddit so much.

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THE QUESTION

• Who reigns supreme for male groups? BTS
• Who reigns supreme for female groups? RED VELVET

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FINAL

• 2016 CENSUS /r/kpop FULL RESULTS. (NOTE: There are not 11465 responses. It's a bug with the summary page. Not sure how to fix it.)
• We are almost at 60k subscribers for the subreddit. Immense growth in the past year.
• As for the question of who are all your faves, I'll try to release a more sanitized chart that includes responses from the other category.

[u/Srini_]

• I think for the past 3 years, we've been 80% single lmao

• It's pretty cool we're almost even for the male-to-female ratio! Maybe in a couple years, it'll be even.

• Hey u/hubwub, it's saying we need permission to access the full results

[u/hubwub → u/Srini_]

Working to fix it. Wait a moment, just got home.

[u/thouartthee]

First time census taker here! Isn't data exciting? If I am being curious, I'll try correlating the bias list and the demographics to see which type of people like which type of group. :P (But it doesn't really serve any practical purpose though, so don't bother)

[u/hubwub → u/thouartthee]

Congratulations on being a first time census taker. The data is pretty exciting because the growth shows changes in regards to the behavior of the subreddit. Every year isn't going to be the same.

It's possible that we can publish sanitized census results. I'll have to do it when I'm not hungry.

[u/COTAnerd]

I'm glad to see the gender ratio starting to balance.

My last year in the 18-24 bracket! :O

Edit: Huh. It looks as if my submission wasn't calculated. Both Secret and Sonamoo were at zero for favourite groups and I picked both of them.

[u/hubwub → u/COTAnerd]

Did you add something in the other bracket? Otherwise, it will be in that field.

[u/brohammerhead]

Thank you r/kpop for this census. I love stats. I am happy to have been a part of it for the second time. :)

Almost 50% of the subredditors on this subreddit are from the USA. Yet, there are only 42 people on this subreddit currently living in South Korea which is an increase from last year.

This surprised me so much. I guess Koreans aren't as into Reddit as Americans are? I hope this changes.

This year, Asian or Pacific Islander has come out as the dominant ethnicity in the subreddit.

Seems like it is changing already! Awesome.

So proud of my boys BTS and that I am not the only single redditor who frequents this sub. You know how idols say that the fans are their girlfriend? Can I be that girl to pretend the idols are my boyfriend? going to go ugly cry in the corner now

EDIT: Checked out the stats and I had to react ~

2NE1: 671 - 10.4%

4minute : 545 - 8.4%

Ow my heart. I am with you people!

BIG BANG: 1695 - 26.2%

BTS: 1903 - 29.4%

Woo my kings!

Black Pink: 953 - 14.7%

Well shiiiiiit. That's not bad for a group that debuted 2 months ago.

Broccoli, you too: 0 - 0%

LOL Is this real?

Mamamoo: 1318 - 20.4%

YES LADIES!

[u/hubwub → u/brohammerhead]

Broccoli, you too is an actual band. They received a total of 11 votes.

[u/[deleted]]

u/hubwub

wubwub, it says that the full results require some sort of permission, pls halp.

[u/hubwub → u/[deleted]]

Working on it fam.

[u/[deleted]]

Aw bts... And despite of the mentioned act above, the "other" categories are so far dominating. it's 140% ._.

[u/Desirsar]

Were votes thrown out if we included all the groups we actually follow closely? (30 or so.) I am 100% sure I marked Guckkasten, which would be more than zero.

[u/hubwub → u/Desirsar]

I would not take into consideration what that summary says in regards to that question. It's a mess!

[u/ViceFreeLife]

:( I 100% marked Gugudan.

I find it weird that groups/people either have a lot of votes or 0... no 1's or 12's, etc.

I'm sure there's a glitch in the way that data specifically is being collected.

Edit: I just looked at it again. It seems like any group with less than 100 votes were marked as 0. It's either that or something is wrong. I think the lowest I saw was 123 or 128.

[u/hubwub → u/ViceFreeLife]

Please do not take into account what is listed in the summary page because it's not accurate. Does not display the whole results of what was voted for. Look at my responses through out this thread in regards to this specific question.

[u/euphoricnight]

I was able to say that I am living in South Korea for the first time this year. It was a special moment. :)

[u/m-i-r-a-g-e]

DEAN has more votes than some really big acts (2NE1, Girl's Day, IU, Miss A, Sistar, for example). Impressed.

[u/urbansombreros]

I've learned I am the ultimate average r/kpop frequenter

edit: Also proud of GFRIEND, very impressive numbers

[u/ShawolSupport]

Glad to be part of the census for the first time! ^{and yay for being part of the single unemployed student group?}

But who needs a relationship when you're already married to the music right ^hahahaha

[u/socoolhage]

WHERE MY 33 OTHER AFRICANS AT

[u/itskarlay]

It's always interesting to see the popular groups within this subreddit vs kpop as a whole. Obviously groups like BTS and Red Velvet are popular all around, but there are so many other groups I would've expected to be ranked higher/lower based on their overall popularity outside of this sub.

[u/bettiepepper]

Woot for the old ass kpop fans! lol

[u/[deleted]]

less than 1k for SNSD, over 1k for Taeyeon. what lol

[u/vinicivs]

So most people here know at least a little of Korean? I find that hard to believe... But maybe Korean is much easier to learn than I thought.

And I'm surprised at how many fans Black Pink already has with only 2 songs released. They left behind even big names like AOA, GsD, APink, T-ara and IU. Incredible.

[u/huangcjz]

Edit: The response rate has gone up from 8.565% in 2015 (3,426 responses/40,000 subscribers) to 10.96% (6,465 responses/59,000 subscribers) this year, I guess as a result of the census being open for 3 weeks this year rather than 2 weeks as in previous years, which shows that it's worthwhile to keep the census open for longer. As a commenter pointed out in the census thread, the census wouldn't catch most of the people who visit this sub-reddit less frequently than that, e.g. once a month, even though there are categories for them to answer that they do so in the census.

I suspect the increase in first exposure to K-pop from browsing YouTube which you call "surprising" is due to the proliferation of reaction videos from channels which don't solely do K-pop reactions.

There's a surprisingly low number of people who say they come from "Northern Europe / Scandinavia" given that it includes the UK, and that this is a predominantly English-language sub-reddit. I suspect that many people from the UK might have put themselves under "Western Europe" instead - that was my first guess for where the UK might go under when I was filling the census in, but I was unsure when I saw the "Northern Europe" option, so I checked, and technically the UK (and the Baltic states) come under Northern Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe

Could the census question be changed in future years to make this clear, like it is for Oceania? I'd also assumed that the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania come under Eastern Europe, but perhaps I was just ignorant of general knowledge in that regard.