Reddit is huge. Need proof? How about a recent Pew study that said 6 percent of all online American adults use the site.
The study, which was published today by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, is the first from Pew to specifically look into Reddit. The results of the study won’t exactly surprise you if you spend any amount of time on the site.
Aside from the 6 percent total, the study found that males predominantly use the site. Fifteen percent of male Internet users aged 18-29 professed to use Reddit where as only 5 percent of females in the same demographic said they used the site. The difference in gender becomes less pronounced in older demographics, but it’s still mostly males who use the site.
Overall, men are twice as likely as women to be reddit users, those under 50 are significantly more likely to use reddit than those 50 or older, and the site is much more common among urban and suburban residents than among those living in rural areas. Indeed, just 2% of internet users ages 50 and older—and 2% of rural residents—say they use the site.
So, what’s the big takeaway from this? Reddit is a pretty big deal. The site has recently come into prominence after President Obama did an AMA last year, and more recently, the fallout from the Boston Marathon bombings investigation. Reddit is also frequently referenced on our site, and many others, which undoubtedly helps introduce the site to more people.
Now, the next step in all of this should be to see how much time American adults spend on Reddit. We might get some hilariously depressing statistics about how much time people are really spending time online.