Every three years we conduct a demographic survey of Oregon Humanities subscribers. We do this because the funders that make our work possible, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Oregon Cultural Trust, and private foundations, want to know how representative our readership is of the population of the state. The information we provide to our funders helps us keep this publication free for all Oregonians. While we're at it, we ask a few questions about the themes and stories that appear in the magazine.
We conducted our 2024 survey from August through October, and received responses from 627 readers. Here's what we learned:
Demographics
- More readers identified as women in 2024 (74 percent) than in 2021 (69 percent)
- Our audience has gotten a little younger. While around half of our readers are over 65, we saw substantial growth in the 46 to 55 age bracket. This implies that new subscribers are trending younger. The largest age bracket in 2024 is 66 to 75.
- The portion of our audience that described their race as White, Caucasian, European, or similar remains the same as in 2021: 87 percent. (This number does not include those who identified as more than one race or identified as Hispanic or Latino/a/e.)
- Oregon Humanities readers remain very highly educated, but the portion holding advanced degrees (MA, JD, PhD, etc.) has decreased from 60 percent to 54 percent.
Geography
Our mailing list stands at around 14,250 subscribers. Of those, 10,250 are households in Oregon; 1,334 are households outside of Oregon, mostly in Washington; and 2,666 are libraries, schools, businesses, and other non-household addresses.
Among households, we have subscribers in every county in Oregon. The county with the largest number is Multnomah, with 4,188 households; the smallest is Wheeler, with 4. Our per capita readership is highest in Gilliam County, where 12 of the county's 862 households receive the magazine, and lowest in Malheur county (17 out of 9,952).
Future themes
We asked readers to name themes or topics they would like to see in future issues. The most common responses (out of around 200 total) were the following: aging, stories about issues facing rural communities, stories about Indigenous culture and communities, stories about urban/rural divides, youth, water, reproductive rights, nature, and climate change.
Other reading
We asked readers whether they subscribe to any other publications with similar style, content, or mission to Oregon Humanities. They responded with a very long list of publications, with the most common being The Sun, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Orion, High Country News, Yes!, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Smithsonian, and Jefferson Journal.
Closing words
The last question in the survey asked readers to share anything else they might want the people who work on the magazine to know. Here's one comment that we thought really spoke to what the magazine is trying to accomplish:
I love, love, love just about everything I see Oregon Humanities doing, from programming to publishing. I look forward to my magazine every season and I really value that it's free for all Oregon residents; I recommend it all the time! I'm fairly new to Oregon (I've lived in Portland for four years) and your magazine and programming have helped me feel more connected with the communities across the vast majority of the state that are still very new to me.
If there anything you would llike us to know, you can always reach me at b.waterhouse@oregonhumanities.org.