Volunteer survey/2015/Demographics report

Introduction

In addition to the main part of the 2015 volunteers' survey, respondents were asked a series of demographic-related questions, answers to which were provided on a strictly anonymous basis. 59 people gave answers to some or all of the demographics questions. This page provides our public report on the responses.

In the tables below, the first column of figures gives the raw numbers. The second column lists the percentages as a proportion of the number of people who replied to that question.

Data

Gender
	No.	%
Male	42	72%
Female	12	21%
Transgender	0	0%
Transexual	0	0%
Prefer not to say	4	7%
Other (please specify)	4	7%
Total responses	58
Sexual orientation
	No.	%
Straight	44	77%
Gay	2	4%
Lesbian	1	4%
Bisexual	3	5%
Asexual	0	0%
Prefer not to say	7	12%
Other (please specify)	0	0%
Total responses	57
What age range are you in?
	No.	%
13 or younger	0	0
14–17	1	2%
18–20	1	2%
21–29	13	22%
30–39	15	26%
40–49	7	12%
50–59	10	17%
60–69	8	14%
70–79	1	2%
80 or older	0	0%
Prefer not to say	2	3%
Total responses	58
Educational qualifications (highest level attained)
	No.	%
Entry level qualifications or equivalent (e.g, an ESOL certificate)	0	0%
GCSE, A-level, HNC or equivalent or equivalent	6	10%
Level 5 NVQ, Certificate of higher education or equivalent	2	3%
Foundation or bachelor's degree or equivalent	15	26%
Master's degree or equivalent	26	45%
Doctoral degree	7	12%
Prefer not to say	2	3%
Total responses	58
Ethnicity
	No.	%
White - English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British	36	62%
White - Irish	1	2%
White - Gypsy or Irish Traveller	0	0%
White - Any other White background, please describe below	6	10%
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups - White and Black Caribbean	0	0%
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups - White and Black African	0	0%
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups - White and Asian	2	3%
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups - Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background, please describe below	2	3%
Asian / Asian British - Indian	2	3%
Asian / Asian British - Pakistani	0	0%
Asian / Asian British - Bangladeshi	0	0%
Asian / Asian British - Chinese	1	2%
Asian / Asian British - Any other Asian background, please describe	1	2%
Asian / Asian British - Any other Asian background, please describe	1	2%
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British - Caribbean	0	0%
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British Any other Black / African / Caribbean background, please describe below	1	2%
Other ethnic group - Arab	2	3%
Other ethnic group - Any other ethnic group, please describe below	0	0%
Prefer not to say	3	5%
Total responses	58

Comments from respondents

Respondents were asked if they had comments about volunteering with Wikimedia UK. Comments included:

• Relationship with the office soured by poor teamwork, demarcation issues and muddle.
• I will follow up on that with an email.
• I was a volunteer at Wikimania 2014 and other occasians we met in London, I am not from the UK, so my response may not fit into the analysis
• Over the years, WMUK had years of abundance and years of drought in terms of the number of people interested, particularly in Board of Trustees membership. This still baffles me. Also the relationship with WMF makes everyone feel a bit fraught.
• Communication and follow-up by staff can be quite poor. Sometimes you wonder why you should give up your time for free when paid staff aren't making the most of your contributions.
• Richard, Karla and Robin are great guys who I'd be happy to call friends I'm sure! They've been of great help to me, and I think they're exactly the sort of folk who really care about content and the encyclopedia itself the foundation needs more of. They're doing a great job with the grants, but I think we could scale a lot of the projects I've been involved in to involve others too and alert more editors to apply for grants themselves as I believe we 're only currently dealing with about 3 or 4 requests.
• The volunteers such as myself seem disorganised - lacking in structure, team spirit and cohesion. I thought the Wikimania event might generate a step up but it didn't seem to stick. The reorganisation of WMUK has made it seem more detached from the volunteers. I attended the recent 15th birthday party event which was ok. The Wellcome speaker had the right attitude and I'd like to see more of such engagement.
• Enough navel-gazing, time for Wikimedia UK to do something to justify its existence
• We have regularly failed to target the most promising source of new editors: University freshers. Fiona did a lot of work in that area 5 or 6 years ago. It needs to be revived.
• After the troubles of the last 2 years, WMUK still seems slow to pick up speed again.
• Staff seem to busy doing other things.
• Thought Wikipedia Loves Monuments could have been better coordinated and better prepared in supporting software
• it is a great organisation, but I would like a little technical advice, to understnd the online training better

In addition to the above, one respondent noted that 'professional qualification' was absent from the options relation to highest level of education attained.

Ethnicity

In the follow up to the people who gave an answer which asked for more information, the following details were given:

• Australian
• Canadian (White European)
• European white
• Greek
• Londoner
• Mainly English/British but with some Irish heritage
• Scottish