Statistical Fandom
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| Title: | Statistical Fandom |
| Creator: | M.J. Fisher |
| Date(s): | May 1977 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Statistical Fandom is a 1977 Star Trek: TOS essay by M.J. Fisher.
It was printed in Spectrum #32.
Some Topics Discussed
- "Out of the 130 people in my survey, there was an approximate ratio of 5.5 females to every male fan."
- "One of the things I noticed in the Who's liho was the number of STW people that were lis ted among the entries. To satisfy a little bit of curiosity I went through and picked out the number of STWers among the entire group. It turns out that out of 130 people, 29 were STW members in some capacity."
From the Essay
The following information may well represent a first for Star Trek fandom as far as gathering statistical data on fans and fandom. As far as I know no one has yet published any kind of statistical survey of ST fandom to date. A major problem in the past was that of getting the information in the first place. Most people who can be considered "fans" are probably fringe fans...folks who watch the show, enjoy it and possibly attend a con or buy a zine, but never become involved. No one knows how many fringe fans there are in the U.S. or the world for that matter. Some people have guessed there may only be a few tens of thousands of them, others suggest that there are millions. Rather than concentrate upon gathering statistics for all types of fans I confined my search to only active fans. Even so, no published statistics of actifans exist previously either. The only reason I have been able to gather this data is because of the Who's Who, which Kzinti Press publishes along with Mandi Schultz. Most of the information contained within this report stems from or is based upon information derived from the Who's Who. I must hasten to point out that the results I have obtained are far from conclusive. For the most part, the statistical audience that I studied contained 130 people. Anyone who has studied statistics knows that 130 people is not a big enough audience to give any precise information, but it can give you a good estimation of probable trends provided you start with a good cross-section audience. The audience in the Who's Who is a pretty good cross section, so the information I have obtained should be useful in predicting a few of the trends in mainstream fandom.
Just over 19% of the group found out about fandom at cons. About 16% (the next largest group) found out about fandom through the efforts of the [[[Star Trek Welcommittee]] (they get around, don't they?). An almost equal number of people found out about fandom from a fellow fan. In some instances the fellow fan was an already-established fan in mainstream fandom; in others, the fellow fan was a neofan who never get interested enough in fandom itself to become involved. About 11.5% discovered fandom through one of the ST books...in my study I found that the books most often cited were TWOST, the Blish books and STL! I even found that 7% of the audience discovered fandom because of S.T.A.R. which has since faded from the scene. There were a few other miscellaneous ways in which fans found fandom, but not enough to form a significant percentage. Interestingly enough, some fans did not discover fandom at first, but because of isolation or desperation, decided to establish their own fandom where they were, and only later discovered the existence of an organized fandom.
From the results of the people who did elect to give their birth dates I was able to figure out a little bit about the average age of the people in the Who's Who cross section. The oldest person in the study was 70 and the youngest was 14. The average age turned out to be about 29.5 years.The median age is 26 and is the more representative age in the study. Briefly, the number of fans per astrological sign are: Aquarius & Pisces: 10%; Aries: 8%; Taurus: 7%; Gemini: 8%; Leo: 12%; Cancer & Virgo: 8.5%; Libra: 5.5%; Scorpio: 11%; Sagittarius: 7%; Capricorn: 4.5%.
When I decided to study the number of active fans per state I was able to go beyond the Who's Who end use other sources to increase the size of the audience. I used four sources to get an estimate of the number of fans per state: 1) The Who's Who 2) A STW personnel roster 3) the STW Directory of STorgs and 4) the subscription list for Spectrum. I used the STW roster because I could be assured that the individuals in it were actifans. Out of the STW Directory I used only the fan club listings.
With the data I have obtained so far it is possible to construct what an average actifan would look like. Such a fan is likely females lives in one of the ten most populous states in the country. She was born in 1951 and discovered fandom in the early seventies through attending a con or through contact with the STW, possibly a combination of the two. Now, if that sounds like someone you know I'm doing something right, if not...back to the drawing board.