Pew: Twitter Dominated by Young Affluent Democrats

Twitter’s userbase is disproportionately young, affluent, and Democrat, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

Approximately 22 percent of American adults use Twitter, says the study, but they differ from the general population in key ways.

10 percent of Twitter users are responsible for 80 percent of tweets on the platform, with 90 percent of users accounting for the remaining 20 percent of tweets.

These highly active users are disproportionately women, and are disproportionately political in the context of their tweets. These users also significantly outstrip the bottom 90 percent of users in terms of accounts they both follow and are followed by.

A study in 2016 showed that Democrat women are far more likely to block people on social media compared to the general population.

Twitter users are also more likely to be Democrats, young, and affluent.

The Pew Study reveals:

• The median age of Twitter users is 40, compared to 47 in the general population.
• Twitter users are three times more likely to be younger than 50 compared to the general population.
• 42 percent of Twitter users have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 31 percent in the general population.
• 36 percent of Twitter users are Democrats, compared to 30 percent in the general population.
• 41 percent of Twitter users report an annual household income of more than $75,000, compared with 31 percent of the general population.
• 66 percent of Twitter users say that ” immigrants strengthen the U.S.”, compared to 57 percent in the general population.
• On an 11-point scale ranging from 0 (very conservative) to 11 (very liberal), Twitter users are considerably less likely to identify as “very conservative” – 14 percent of users, compared with 25 percent of the general population.

However, Twitter users are slightly less prone to political correctness than other U.S. adults. 59 percent say that people “take offensive content they see online too seriously,” compared to 54 percent in the general population.

Are you an insider at Google, Facebook, Twitter or any other tech company who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com. 

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.