Ages of MacRumors members revealed at last

[Doctor Q]

The subject of the average age of a MacRumors members has come up repeatedly over the years, along with questions about who is the youngest member. Here are a few of the previous threads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There was a MacPolls (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=129) question about ages in February 2003.

Using my own computations, I present here what I think is an accurate graph of the distribution of ages of currently registered MacRumors members. I have excluded members who are not yet 13 (the minimum to join without permission of a parent or guardian) and I have excluded members who I believe posted incorrect ages as jokes or by mistake. Most members don't post their year of birth, so this is based only on those who do. That subset may not represent the overall membership, but it's the closest we can get.

The X axis is the member age, from 13 to 81. The Y axis is the number of registered members with that age. This result is part of an effort I've made over the last weeks to compute some statistics about MacRumors members and look for interesting facts. The age distribution, being of more general interest than the other stats I've posted, deserved its own thread.

According to my results, there are 9 registered thirteen-year-old members, 71 fourteen-year-old members, and 39 registered members over the age of 65. I found that the mean average age is 30.3, with a wide range around that average (a standard deviation of 10.3). The curve is weighted towards the left, reaching a maximum (the most common age) at 23, with 24 in second place. It drops off rapidly from mid 30s to mid 40s (careers? families?), but has only a gradual decline across the 50s and a long tail of senior citizen members.

The number of 22-year-olds is greater than the number of 21-year-olds by only a single member. But of course the MacRumors age distribution changes slightly every time a member joins or has a birthday, so the exact numbers change daily. Still, the shape of this curve probably stays pretty much the same over time.

[stoid]

And of course, this data is all dependent on members entering in their true birthday. It's possible that some are fudging by a year or two.

Now all you need to do is make a world map with little red dots or something for location! :D :eek: :p

[zelmo]

Great. Like I needed another factoid to remind me that I am old. :rolleyes:
OTOH, maybe I've gotten so old that I actually need someone to remind me once in a while! :D

Seriously, though. Nice work, Q.

[AmigoMac]

ohh, I'm already down the slope ... Time is running... :eek:

[Mr. Anderson]

But of course the MacRumors age distribution changes slightly every time a member joins or has a birthday, so the exact numbers change daily. Still, the shape of this curve probably stays pretty much the same over time.

I would bet that over the next ten years it will shift a bit to the older end of the spectrum.....

Don't know if we'll all be around here to see that though :D

D

[aswitcher]

Hey, can you do a world map putting everyone in from which country they log in from?

[PlaceofDis]

21 here, nice to see that im not in the age minority yet :D

[Doctor Q]

For comparison, here are graphs of age ranges, first the distribution found by the MacPolls poll in February 2003, and then a distribution over the same ranges using my data.

Mr. Anderson may have a good point. In the 20 months between the poll and my computations, it looks like there is a small shift toward the older side.

[medea]

yeah there are members my age than any other....

Seriously Q, you are a woman with too much free geek time on her hands.

[Doctor Q]

Based on my results...

Youngest member (13 years, 3 months):rosanna

Second place, only 11 days behind: bittermagic

Youngest member who has posted (13 years, 6 months): mackasey

Followed by these members, from youngest to oldest:
XIII (13 years, 8 months)
fr0ntside (13 years, 9 months)
ryan42 (13 years, 10 months)
thornycroft (13 years, 11 months)
javabear90 (13 years, 11 months, and the only one in this list with over 100 posts)
o1no1ne (turns 14 tomorrow - Happy Birthday!)

I hope the following senior members are still going strong:

Oldest registered MacRumors member: Olene Sims, age 81, born June 4, 1923

Runners up, from oldest to youngest:
frank ratliff, age 78, born January 24, 1926
CARL_77, age 78, born February 6, 1926
eugeneg4, age 77, born April 18, 1927
Milton Guilbeau, age 77, born May 11, 1927
Oldest member who has posted: WhitGordon, age 73, born April 27, 1931

Second place: paradiseisland, age 70, born September 21, 1934

Note: I had to make judgment calls on which members had posted their correct ages. I apologize where I've made the wrong assumptions about the credibility of a member's claims. I did my best, and the results are only as accurate as my choices.

[russed]

wow there is an 81 year old! i wish my grandma knew how to use a cmputer let alone my parents!

hey alteast im on the upslope still. i dont feel too old yet!

[Les Kern]

Let's just say I'm WAY over the apex, and alarmingly close to the end of your graph. Crapperiffic.

[rainman::|:|]

See, now you need to cross-index this with the idea mentioned in the other thread, about username statistics... Because I notice the older people in the list are more likely to use spaces in their names, likely because the younger generation has grown up with the idea that usernames don't contain spaces (I didn't realize they can here until after I joined), probably older people are more likely to use their real names (no, i'm only 22)(yes, i realize the username stats couldn't grok real names)...

Dr. Q, are you a statician? if not, why not? I know you said you spend bored weekends doing this, but I've never spent a boring weekend playing with numbers... :)

paul

[applemacdude]

I was 12 when i signed up...

[realityisterror]

when i registered i was about 3 weeks past being 13... now i'm 14, and maybe someday i'll be 50 and still be posting, with more posts than Mr. Anderson no doubt...
even at my current 1.4 posts per day, after 37 years i'd have 18,907.. maybe i need to speed up... :P

reality

[Phat_Pat]

and i thought i was young :eek:

wow now i feel old :(

[jefhatfield]

21 here, nice to see that im not in the age minority yet :D

the mean age seems to be around 22 1/2 so you are very, very average ;)

some people log on here and lie about their age since they are underage for this site but go on anyway...so i suppose the average is below 21 yrs of age

[Flying Llama]

Guess i should confess... i started reading macrumors when i was 10!! :eek: my real birthday is December 8th 1991... :eek: :o :cool:

[Blue Velvet]

"Drops off rapidly"

Nice choice of words, there.

Looking forward to "my gradual decline"






But I'm OK, with my decay... I have no say...
– Grandaddy

:)

[Mr. Anderson]

Mr. Anderson may have a good point. In the 20 months between the poll and my computations, it looks like there is a small shift toward the older side.

And its sure to keep shifting :D

So how many members or percentage of members actually provide their year in the birthdate? You don't have that many so your sub group is only those members willing to share the data. I'd be very curious, and we'll never know, what the curve would be if you had all the members in the chart.

D

[Wyvernspirit]

There are 355 members reported to b my age woo hoo.

[wdlove]

I would bet that over the next ten years it will shift a bit to the older end of the spectrum.....

Don't know if we'll all be around here to see that though :D

D

Take heart Mr. Anderson, we should be around for at least another 20 years, possibly 30. Hopefully Doctor Q will be able to update his statistics. :D

[Doctor Q]

And its sure to keep shiftingWhat's the reason for this?


So how many members or percentage of members actually provide their year in the birthdate?

[Flying Llama]

What's the reason for this?

wow! that's too bad... although i shouldn't be talking since i lied about my age...

[~Shard~]

Excellent thread, just found it! Glad to see I'm near the average at least - not too old yet! And personally, I plan on being here for a while, so I hope the rest of you Mods and Gods are as well! :cool:

Well done Doctor Q, I'll speak on behalf of many other MacRumors members in saying that I really appreciate your efforts. :cool:

[~Shard~]

... And for what it's worth, my bio information is correct, so I'm not one of those pesky members who is lying and making things complicated for ya. ;)

[mms]

Would there be a way to do this with active members (say, who've posted in the last month or whatever)? Obviously many people have signed up and haven't posted at all, or significantly enough to matter. And my reasoning that those who signed up just for the heck of it (or just to read, since if my memory of MR history is correct there was a period when even lurkers had to sign up) would be more likely to lie about ages and other info.

[jefhatfield]

i don't tell everybody i am 40 and i usually come across online and in person (by my appearance and the way i dress) as late 20s/early 30s to most people and they assume i am that age...and i don't go out of my way to correct them ;)

i shy away from wearing old man jackets and the izod lines designed for middle aged men...i don't fancy shiny polyester or silk golf shirts and i don't like many of the old man shoes many in my age range wear...i don't find a need to wear dress belts with my jeans and i prefer casual shoes to shiny dress shoes on my days off

i like to look young and while i can still pull it off i do

one day i will look silly wearing gen x clothes and at that time, i will dress more like my boomer compatriots, but there's no hurry

[~Shard~]

i don't tell everybody i am 40 and i usually come across online and in person (by my appearance and the way i dress) as late 20s/early 30s to most people and they assume i am that age...and i don't go out of my way to correct them ;)

i shy away from wearing old man jackets and the izod lines designed for middle aged men...i don't fancy shiny polyester or silk golf shirts and i don't like many of the old man shoes many in my age range wear...i don't find a need to wear dress belts with my jeans and i prefer casual shoes to shiny dress shoes on my days off

i like to look young and while i can still pull it off i do

one day i will look silly wearing gen x clothes and at that time, i will dress more like my boomer compatriots, but there's no hurry

I like your attitude, I think that's totally the way to look at things. You're only as young as you feel! If you start thinking old, acting old and dressing old, then guess what, you will be old!

I hope to have the same attitude when I'm your age. In 14 long years that is. :p ;) :cool:

[virividox]

i love all these stats too bad we cant confirm them

[jefhatfield]

I like your attitude, I think that's totally the way to look at things. You're only as young as you feel! If you start thinking old, acting old and dressing old, then guess what, you will be old!

I hope to have the same attitude when I'm your age. In 14 long years that is. :p ;) :cool:

i have to admit i have a fetish for mtv/vh1 type hip hop clothes...and even though i look young for my age compared to some 40 year olds, i still look very out of place wearing slim shady, ecko, or similar type apparel

when i was a teen there was nothing remotely as cool as what the teens have access to today...and comparitively, we paid the same high prices for op wear and other fab gear

whenever i see the salesman at the ecko counter, he always reassures me that there are regulars also my age who love ecko clothes...my wife is 49 and she likes paul frank ;)

[Doctor Q]

Would there be a way to do this with active members (say, who've posted in the last month or whatever)? Obviously many people have signed up and haven't posted at all, or significantly enough to matter. And my reasoning that those who signed up just for the heck of it (or just to read, since if my memory of MR history is correct there was a period when even lurkers had to sign up) would be more likely to lie about ages and other info.Maybe this will do. I created an age distribution for members who have posted, excluding members who registered but have never posted. To make it easy to compare with the previous graph, I used the same scale (0 to 600 members for ages 13 to 81), even though the range of ages for posters goes only to 73 and the maximum number of members who posted is 342, for age 23.

The average age of members who have posted is 28.4.

[jefhatfield]

Maybe this will do. I created an age distribution for members who have posted, excluding members who registered but have never posted. To make it easy to compare with the previous graph, I used the same scale (0 to 600 members for ages 13 to 81), even though the range of ages for posters goes only to 73 and the maximum number of members who posted is 342, for age 23.

The average age of members who have posted is 28.4.

if you take the data and post it into a normal distribution curve and remove the anomalies and outliers, i think the average age is much closer to 20 or 21

monterey county, which includes every billionaire in the world with a summer home in pebble beach/big sur/carmel, has terribly skewed outliers who make it hard for accurate economic data to be collected for county uses

using a normal distribution curve of the monterey county area, my wife worked for a company that figured the average income to be 23k...but when taking into account the homes owned by absentee people like many stars...novak, day, travolta, eastwood, pitt, aniston...and high techie types...allen, gates, ellison, connor, packard...and others including japanese and arab billionaire developers, and making those people monterey county residents, the "curve" changed and monterey county's average income exceeded 35k during that same year...but those illustrious famous people, with the exception of eastwood, don't live here full time

one stupid newspaper here priced their ads to that 35k figure and guess what, no one could afford to advertise in their paper...their cost per inch for ads was approaching that of silicon valley where people average a much, much higher income...the people doing the statistical research for the paper knew nothing about math, but it was a small paper of creative artists and writers working in a coop type situation in a renovated house...i tried to explain to them some basic mathematical and statistical concepts but it went over their head...i for one believe america needs to push math in high school ;)

i am surprised donald trump doesn't own a mansion in pebble beach being that he plays golf here...the ultra rich don't stay in hotels in frequently visited resorts...they buy a house there and thus receive an investment while they are at it so they can get more rich

to get a normal dist curve, and i know you know this doc, take out the statistical anomalies, and shave it beyond one or two standard deviations

once a developer wanted to find the population center of the united states where they could build the biggest shopping mall and they didn't pay mind to standard deviations and outliers/statistical anomalies and they ended up a few hundred miles off the pacific coast...last time i checked, it would be hell to build a parking lot there...btw, the usa has a ton of islands in the pacific and the philippines were a us territory once

[Mr. Anderson]

Wow, that's a small percent of members who post date and year.....

I didn't, not that it matters - just turned 40 last month :D

Q, could you take your two charts of members who post and members who don't and overlay them? See the difference, if any in that....


D

[Wyvernspirit]

The average age of members who have posted is 28.4.

I am the "average age," well sort of, I'm 28.16.

And I posted my comlete and True birthdate, unless you want to count time of day.
;)

[EminenceGrise]

Compare with the US census data (total population for 2000, binned by age (and projections for 2025 and 2050)):

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbpyrs.pl?cty=US&out=s&ymax=250

Or pick another nation:

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbpyr.html

Cool stuff.

[EminenceGrise]

if you take the data and post it into a normal distribution curve and remove the anomalies and outliers, i think the average age is much closer to 20 or 21


Except that you can't do that here, because the data isn't normally distributed. For instance, any ages below 13 are dropped/not represented (leaving a nice sharp cutoff), and you have a long tail off towards the older ages. If there was one age, say 100, way off to the right and nothing in between that and, say 45, you might be justified in dropping the age 100 data point. However, you don't have that, you have a whole slew of ages tailing off, and we can be fairly certain that most (if not all) those data points are real people that we can count with relative certainty, not statistical anomalies. All this means you can't use statistics meant for normal distributions, any more than you can get a square peg into a round hole. :) Your point is well taken, however don't fall into the trap that you can solve every statistical problem with a normal distribution - otherwise you might find yourself building a mall in the middle of an ocean. ;)

[Doctor Q]

Or pick another nation:

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbpyr.htmlThanks. That's a very nice resource.

I guess this one (http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbpyrs.pl?cty=MC&out=s&ymax=250) is about Macintosh Australia Sites About Rumors. ;)

[Doctor Q]

Q, could you take your two charts of members who post and members who don't and overlay them? See the difference, if any in that....This is the graph for members who posted (blue) overlaid on the graph for all members (yellow, full height of each bar). The visible part of each yellow bar therefore represents the number of members who never posted.

[~Shard~]

This is the graph for members who posted (blue) overlaid on the graph for all members (yellow, full height of each bar). The visible part of each yellow bar therefore represents the number of members who never posted.

Interesting - you can tell the ages of people who are most likely to sign up for fun and then never follow through with anything and continue posting - an interesting experiment on "commitment" in some respects... ;)

[themadchemist]

i love all these stats too bad we cant confirm them

Confirm? CONFIRM? You dare to question Doctor Q's statistical prowess and brilliance?! Mods, automatic banning! :D ;) :p

edit: oh, you meant the raw data itself...but still!

[~Shard~]

Confirm? CONFIRM? You dare to question Doctor Q's statistical prowess and brilliance?! Mods, automatic banning! :D ;) :p


How about blatant brown-nosing of Mods like Doctor Q - is that a ban-able offense? :p ;) :cool:

[wdlove]

This is the graph for members who posted (blue) overlaid on the graph for all members (yellow, full height of each bar). The visible part of each yellow bar therefore represents the number of members who never posted.

That is good to know that our older members are still posting. Thank you Doctor Q. I can't really tell are those in their upper 70's and 80's posting?

[Macmaniac]

Well I have been here for almost 4 years so that means I joined when I was around 14-15. I bet around that time I was one of the young bloods, considering the site was only 1 or 2 years old.

[Doctor Q]

I can't really tell are those in their upper 70's and 80's posting?No. Of those over age 65, the tally is

one 66-year-old poster
five 67-year-old posters
two 68-year-old posters
one 69-year-old poster
one 70-year-old poster
no 71-year-old posters
no 72-year-old posters
one 73-year-old poster
and nobody any older who posts

[wowser]

those two 72 year old members should hook up and form a Mac- SIlver - Surfer group!

[Doctor Q]

Here's a graph showing members by rank for each age. I made a group out of the 65816, 65832, and 68000 ranks and a group for ranks 68010 and above since they have too few members to be distinguishable individually.

The graph covers only members who post. Members with 0 posts are excluded, not counted as newbies.

As you can see, newbies dominate the membership count at every age.

[Mr. Anderson]

kind of tough to read....and some of the larger ranges are cropped off at the top.

Maybe separate graphs for each?

D

[Doctor Q]

some of the larger ranges are cropped off at the top.Actually, they aren't cropped. Those bars end just over 300.

This version might help. This shows the percentage of each rank for each age. In other words, each bar in the previous graph is scaled in height to 100% so you can see the proportional composition of membership for each age rather than absolute counts. Again, members who never posted are not included.

I had to scale the graphic to fit under the attachment-size limit, even after a color reduction, but I think you can see how the percentage of newbies increases with age, at the expensive of the higher ranks, particularly Regulars.

It's interesting to note that the percentage of 6502-or-higher members is highest at age 15, similar at ages 16-17, and then has a mysterious surge at age 26.

[~Shard~]

Here's a graph showing members by rank for each age. I made a group out of the 65816, 65832, and 68000 ranks and a group for ranks 68010 and above since they have too few members to be distinguishable individually.

The graph covers only members who post. Members with 0 posts are excluded, not counted as newbies.

As you can see, newbies dominate the membership count at every age.

Very cool, Doctor Q! I see I'm in a minority with my age and rank combination, interesting...

Thanks for all these statistics, I find them fascinating! :cool:

[Mr. Anderson]

It's interesting to note that the percentage of 6502-or-higher members is highest at age 15, similar at ages 16-17, and then has a mysterious surge at age 26.

but that's just that small percent that actually told you they're age....cross check that with how many of each member group told you their age....

D

[monkeydo_jb]

Maybe 23 year olds are the most comfortable sharing their age with others!

Do I get a prize for my age winning on all of the graphs?

[Doctor Q]

Do I get a prize for my age winning on all of the graphs?Yes. You get a brand new Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 and a 30" Cinema Display. Just go to 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, and tell them you came to pick it up.

[emw]

Well, I was inspired to post my age now. Of course, it skews it more toward the older group, albeit not by much.

[emw]

And its sure to keep shifting

What's the reason for this?
Well, I believe Mr. Anderson was attempting to be humorous, in that we will all continue to get older, not younger. ;)

Realistically, though, if you track this every two years (20+ months), you are likely to see it trend older since you now have such a larger user base. That is, the entire base will shift to the "older side" of the curve - if the median age is now 22, two years from now it would be 24, assuming no change in membership.

The only way to make a large shift back is to have an influx of younger users. The more users you have now, the more younger new users it would take to shift the momentum the other way.

This is also assuming that we don't "retire" users if they are not active for a certain period of time.

[wdlove]

Actually, they aren't cropped. Those bars end just over 300.

I had to scale the graphic to fit under the attachment-size limit, even after a color reduction, but I think you can see how the percentage of newbies increases with age, at the expensive of the higher ranks, particularly Regulars.



Thanks again for your awesome yeoman's job. If I'm reading your graph correctly there appears to be a large percentage of 68010+ in my age bracket of 56. What is the actual percentage and number of members?

[Doctor Q]

There's another reason that the average age would be expected to advance. Senior citizens didn't grow up using computers every day like so many teens (and maybe newborns :) are now doing. Some adults and many seniors have never learned to use one and don't plan to. The percentage of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and older who use computers grows every year as those who grew up using computers reach those ages.

It's also true that I didn't exclude members who haven't posted for a while, and the forums don't let memberships lapse for inactivity. If we repeat these kinds of membership counts in a few years, it would be sensible to exclude posters who were inactive for a certain length of time.

[~Shard~]

This would be an interesting stat - how many MacRumors members have been banned, what is the average age of banned members and who were the highest ranking members ever to be banned? Just curious if those kinds of stats are kept... ;)

[Doctor Q]

If I'm reading your graph correctly there appears to be a large percentage of 68010+ in my age bracket of 56. What is the actual percentage and number of members?This is as good an opportunity as any to zoom in on one age and look at the details. So let's learn all about members who are currently age 56...

Number of age-56 members: 33

Ranks:No posts: 17 (52%)
Newbie with at least one post: 14 (42%)
Member: 1 (3%)
68010+: 1 (3%)
And now let's meet the 16 who have posted up close and personal (cue the music):

For each, I have listed the member name, rank, post count, location if specified, and something of interest about them.

dkeyser - Newbie (1 post) - (location unknown) - interests: paragliding

driinc - Newbie (1 post) - (location unknown) - born on Columbus Day

huckles - Newbie (1 post) - Stockport - has Power Mac G4 with external DVD/RW drive

jdbunn - Newbie (1 post) - Col. Grove, OH - math teacher

rauhda - Newbie (1 post) - Yardley, Pa - interests: kayaking, running

scottpet - Newbie (1 post) - Connecticut - interests: macs, photography, barbershop singing!

dbrhett - Newbie (2 posts) - (location unknown) - asked for printer networking help

dnaustin - Newbie (2 posts) - (location unknown) - C or C++ programmer

cerid - Newbie (3 posts) - Turkey - has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering

Cormac O'Reilly - Newbie (4 posts) - Newburyport MA - iChats with daughter in Austrailia

tjpratt - Newbie (4 posts) - Seattle - unemployed web/designer

russoesq - Newbie (5 posts) - Brooklyn - a gamer!

Larry - Newbie (6 posts) - Sacramento - bought an iMac last year

cephoto - Newbie (7 posts) - Lousianna - photographer

paulsecic - Member (66 posts) - San Lorenzo, CA - first mac was a powermac 6100; disabled

wdlove - 68010+/Contributor (10,314 posts) - Boston - interest: dogs; well-known in the forums

[Macs R Us]

Well I'm 16 years old. I have been on here since I was 15.

[XIII]

I'm in the youngest 20 or 30 then I guess.. :)