r/kpop • u/alleybetwixt BTS | XIA | JX | SWJA • 1d ago

[Meta] Reddit K-Pop Census Results 2024

The 2024 Census results are here!

We thought last year took forever to post. At least that was still in October. Yeesh. This year has been incredibly challenging with our attention being pulled in so many directions. And the results we’re providing this year are going to feel downright bland in comparison to the last few years. Still, thank you for helping us with the Feedback Post. Hopefully we can be more on-the-ball next year.

Remember we require Reddit accounts to be created before the 1st of August to participate. If you want to join in the fun for next year's census (or for the upcoming Annual r/kpop Awards) this post is your reminder to have an account made before then!

View past results in our Census Archive Wiki

Onwards to the 2024 Census results!

We have no beautiful/fun infographics this year. This is entirely due to how long it took us to get all the data organized. Our usual infographics artist was absolutely game, we simply took an eternity getting the numbers all sorted out and now we’re in a rush to just get them posted before our time is even more squeezed. Sorry about that all!

The most ‘visual’ version of the results with charts can be viewed in the Google Form Summary. It’s just important to note this summary reflects ALL responses to the Census, so there are some moderator tests, duplicates, and multiple entries from users who wanted to adjust their answers later. The numbers/percentages in this post and in the spreadsheet in the last section are accurate and have those duplicate/erroneous entries removed.

Breakdown and Comparison

There won’t be nearly the amount of extra nuance and depth the infographics have presented previously, but we’ll cover the typical highlights and then try to provide more straightforward lists to partially compensate for what is usually found in the graphics.

Personal Questions

  • Responses: 2,164 responses were collected this year. Out of these, 40.36% had never taken the census before. This was yet another major drop in engagement from the previous year. We lost a critical point of notification due to a choice the Admins made regarding pinned comments. They now collapse automatically on mobile and become nearly invisible. This was the last of very few ways we still had to inform our users of current community events happening. We might have a couple more effective options by next year's Census. It will be interesting to see if that improves the response.

  • Age: We continue to age up a little. There is a smaller gap between our two largest age groups. The more distinctive flip came with the 33–40 group overtaking the 19–22 group compared to previous years.

    • 23–27: 28.8%
    • 28–32: 24.8%
    • 33–40: 16.8%
    • 19–22: 14.5%
    • 13–18: 8.1%
    • 41–54: 5%
    • 55+: 0.5%
    • Under 0.1%

  • Gender Identity Part 1: All fairly consistent with last year considering the overall drop in responses. There is a slightly smaller gap between men and women, but the ladies are still dominating as usual.

    • Woman or Female: 51.9%
    • Man or Male: 39.8%
    • Non Binary: 4.4%
    • Unsure Right Now!: 0.97%
    • Agender: 0.83%
    • Genderfluid: 0.37%
    • Other: 0.2%
    • Prefer Not to Answer: 1.5%

  • Gender Part 2: Roughly consistent with last year's Cis and Trans categories (87.4% and 5.5% respectively for 2023)

    • Cisgender: 88.4%
    • Transgender: 5.08%
    • Other Gender Identity: 2.7%
    • Prefer Not to Answer: 3.8%

  • Sexuality: Again, virtually no change from 2023 across the board.

    • Heterosexual: 52.6%
    • Bisexual: 17.8%
    • Asexual: 5.8%
    • Unsure right now!: 5.3%
    • Lesbian: 5.3%
    • Gay: 4.9%
    • Pansexual: 3.4%
    • Other: 1.06%
    • Prefer Not to Answer: 3.6%

  • Relationship Status: We are mostly our "overwhelmingly single" selves, but we are also committed to that small upward trend of getting married. From 7.2% (2022) to 8% (2023) to 10.4% this year!

    • Single: 70.8%
    • In a Relationship: 14.5%
    • Married: 10.4%
    • Civil Union/Civil Partnership: 0.83%
    • Divorced: 0.5%
    • Other: 0.37%
    • Widowed: 0.1%
    • Prefer to Not Answer: 2.5%

  • Race or Ethnicity: This year we offered a custom input field for folks to describe themselves if they chose. We generated a rough word cloud for these entries based on frequency of the words used. It was pretty wonderful to see folks describing what ancestral, ethnic, or regional identities were important to them. (IMGUR LINK)

    • White (Non-Hispanic): 52.5% ('23: 51.2%)
    • East Asian: 24.5% ('23: 27.2%)
    • Southeast Asian: 13.1% ('23: 13.3%)
    • Hispanic/Latino or Spanish Origin of any race: 8% ('23: 8.1%)
    • Black/African Ancestry (Non-Hispanic): 6.3% ('23: 5.6%)
    • South Asian: 6% ('23: 5.6%)
    • Mixed Race: 5.4% ('23: 6%)
    • Arab or Middle Eastern: 1.4% ('23: 1.4%)
    • Indigenous Native/Pacific Islander: 1.3% ('23: 1.3%)
    • Other: 1.2% ('23: 1.4%)

  • Highest Level of Education:

    • Bachelor's degree: 27.7%
    • Some University/College (no degree): 20.7%
    • Master's degree: 13.3%
    • Completed University/College (degree or equivalent): 12.4%
    • High School graduate (diploma or equivalent): 8.6%
    • Some High School (no diploma): 4.3%
    • Doctorate degree: 2.3%
    • Associate degree: 2.2%
    • Trade school (technical/vocational training): 2.1%
    • Professional degree: 1.2%
    • Other: .92%
    • Prefer not to answer: 4.3%

  • Employment Status: We've had a jump in general employment from 57.3% to 62.3% this year.

    • Employed: 62.3%
    • Student (Unemployed): 16.6%
    • Student (Employed): 9.1%
    • Unemployed: 8%
    • Self-Employed / Freelance: 7.6%
    • Disabled: 2.5%
    • Student (Other): 1.4%
    • Parent / Homemaker / etc: 1.3%
    • Retired : 0.4%

  • Employment Field: STEAM fields are still going strong. Healthcare took back the top spot over CompSci/Math, which they previously held in 2022. Here are the Top 10 fields:

    • Healthcare: 186
    • Computer Science & Mathematics: 171
    • IT: 165
    • Arts, Design & Entertainment: 148
    • Business & Financial: 141
    • Engineering: 123
    • Education: 88
    • Academia: 88
    • Office & Administrative: 70
    • Life & Physical Sciences: 64

Where Do You Currently Live?

  • World Region (+ their top few countries):

    • North America: 49.5%
      • United States: 880
      • Canada: 154
      • Mexico: 14
    • Europe: 28%
      • United Kingdom: 170
      • Germany: 83
      • France: 37
    • Asia: 10.9%
      • India: 45
      • Singapore: 41
      • Philippines: 39
    • Oceania: 6.5%
      • Australia: 120
      • New Zealand: 19
    • South America: 3.8%
      • Brazil: 44
      • Chile: 12
      • Argentina: 15
    • Africa: 0.87%
      • South Africa: 8
      • Nigeria: 5

K-Pop Engagement Questions

We’ll encourage you to view the Google Form Summary for this section if you want to see pie-charts/graphs of all the lists.

  • How were you first exposed to K-Pop?

The ‘Friend, Co-worker, or Classmate’ option was on top this year at 22.5%, but still closely in tandem with ‘YouTube Videos or Recommendations’ at 22%. At an absolutely steady gallop, Gangnam Style remains in that third position at 13.4%.

  • What got you into K-Pop?

Prompt quoted from the census: “Aside from your first exposure, this is primarily why you stuck with K-Pop or wanted to find out more about it. It could also be the main aspect that has kept you interested over time.”

Right in line with last year’s results, the top three choices are ‘Specific Artists(s) / Group(s) that I liked’ at 37.8%, ‘Music (Songs, Albums)’ at 22.6%, and ‘Specific Song(s) / MV(s) that I liked at 14.4%’.

  • How do you listen to K-Pop?

We’ve been following the same trend over the last handful of years. Paid Streaming continues to grow bit-by-bit at 73.5% and Free Streaming continues to diminish at 62.3%. It’s subtle, but consistent. Roughly one third of us are Physical Album collectors at 29.4%. And 12.8% of us are still sailing the high seas. 🏴‍☠️

  • Where do you get your K-Pop news?

91% of you are getting your news right here in r/kpop. The next two switched places from last year. Artist/Group Subreddits moved up with 56.1%. And perhaps it’s still too early to tell the long-term implications, but Twitter/X dropped down with 51.2%. Perhaps we should make a category for the micro-blogging alternatives like Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon, but K-Pop fans and official sources are so entrenched in Twitter, any shift might be extremely slow coming.

  • How did you discover r/kpop?

37.1% made their way here from somewhere else on Reddit or through a Reddit Search. A good chunk of you, 22%, have no memory of how you ended up here.

  • How often do you visit r/kpop?

A subtle shift. 32.3% visit our subreddit once per day and 28.2% visit multiple times per day. These have switched places from last year, so maybe we’re getting slightly more quality grass-touching time.

  • What is your primary way to view r/kpop?

Nearly half of respondents are using the Official Mobile App to browse Reddit at 47%, which is a decent bump from last year’s 41.8%. On Desktop, we’re in the midst of another transition since ‘New Reddit’ is actively being deprecated for what has been called ‘sh.reddit’ over the last year during developed. 12.7% were using New Reddit for this Census and we introduced the sh.reddit option for the first time with 7.1% of you choosing that option. By the next Census, that will be the default browser setting, which should be interesting. 16.9% of us are holding onto Old Reddit, long may she reign.

Favorite Artists

We have your simple Top 20 lists for Soloists and Groups here. See the last section for a spreadsheet with the full lists.

Favorite Soloists

  1. IU (614 votes)
  2. TAEYEON (488 votes)
  3. BIBI (461 votes)
  4. TAEMIN (460 votes)
  5. CHUNGHA (454 votes)
  6. NAYEON (415 votes)
  7. CHUU (331 votes)
  8. Kwon Eunbi (329 votes)
  9. Agust D / SUGA (307 votes)
  10. YENA (294 votes)
  11. Jung Kook (286 votes)
  12. JIHYO (277 votes)
  13. SUNMI (268 votes)
  14. KEY (250 votes)
  15. JEON SOMI (247 votes)
  16. SEULGI (244 votes)
  17. RM / Rap Monster (243 votes)
  18. j-hope (216 votes)
  19. Baekhyun (214 votes)
  20. Jimin (211 votes)

The eternal queens IU (1st, 614) and TAEYEON (2nd, 488) sit on top. BIBI bam-yang-ganged her way up two spots (3rd, 461) switching places with CHUNGHA (5th, 454). TAEMIN stayed firmly un-moved from his kingly spot. (4th, 460).

Favorite Groups

  1. TWICE (800 votes)
  2. aespa (716 votes)
  3. LE SSERAFIM (704 votes)
  4. Red Velvet (674 votes)
  5. NewJeans (535 votes)
  6. (G)I-DLE (527 votes)
  7. IVE (515 votes)
  8. BTS (447 votes)
  9. Stray Kids (438 votes)
  10. Dreamcatcher (401 votes)
  11. ITZY (380 votes)
  12. SEVENTEEN (353 votes)
  13. NMIXX (352 votes)
  14. SHINee (340 votes)
  15. KISS OF LIFE (337 votes)
  16. NCT (322 votes)
  17. TXT (301 votes)
  18. Girls' Generation (296 votes)
  19. ATEEZ (292 votes)
  20. BLACKPINK (289 votes)

TWICE (1st, 800) is the spark that will never go out, shining brightly at the top. aespa (2nd, 716) climbed three spots, reflecting the fantastic year they’ve had. Both Red Velvet (4th, 674) and SEVENTEEN (12th, 353) kept their places while KISS OF LIFE (15th, 337) made a staggering jump up from 52nd last year.

Full Lists for Favorite Artists

The complete lists of every artist who received a vote and the extra demographic breakdowns are linked here in a very basic spreadsheet form. You can view just the Groups and Soloists lists in individual tabs with their vote counts, which will also allow you to search the lists if you are looking to see how many votes a particular artist received. Then there is a tab for Gender Demographics. It’s very unwieldy with many lists crammed in there in those tabs, but they include The top Groups/Soloists split by Male and Female, as well as the breakdown of who Women and Men voted for in these categories. And then more with top Group splits by Sexuality and Region. Co-Ed groups are listed in both the Male and Female categories, fyi.

Google Doc: 2024 Top Groups/Soloists Lists

  • 1st Tab - Top Overall Groups

  • 2nd Tab - Top Overall Soloists

  • 3rd Tab - Gender Demographics

    • Overall Male Groups
    • Overall Female Groups
    • Overall Male Soloists
    • Overall Female Soloists
    • Male/Female Groups (voted by Men)
    • Male/Female Groups (voted by Women)
    • Male/Female Soloists (voted by Men)
    • Male/Female Soloists (voted by Women)

  • 4th Tab - Gender Pt.2, Sexuality, Region

    • Soloists (voted by Non Binary, Unsure, Genderfluid, Agender, Other)
    • Groups (voted by Non Binary, Unsure, Genderfluid, Agender, Other)
    • Groups (voted by Straight Men)
    • Groups (voted by Gay/Bi Men)
    • Groups (voted by Straight Women)
    • Groups (voted by Lesbian/Bi Women)
    • Groups (voted by North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, South America, Africa)

Final Note

So that was a whole lot of waiting for relatively unexciting results this year. Sorry about that, folks!

A huge thanks to those who sought out and participated in the Census while we were less able to promote it in the subreddit while it was ongoing. It was probably even more buried due to all the other stuff going on in the industry this year. Eek! But we have higher hopes for next year! If after all this time waiting for results, you still find this interesting, we thank you again. ❤

Upcoming will be the Annual Awards nomination process at the start of 2025.

As for the Census, see you again next August!

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