LESSWRONG
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The LessWrong Community Census

Dec 01, 2023 by Screwtape

Once upon a time, someone was curious about the LessWrong community. Following the virtue of curiosity, they asked questions. Now we know more about the kind of people who are interested in Rationality and how they relate to the content on this website.

Scott Alexander started the LessWrong Community Census, but others have picked up the torch in their turn since he set it down. It wouldn't do for too much focus on LessWrong to go meta, to turn inward on itself and not look at the world around us, but once a year is a fine cadence and it's a tradition that I enjoy. 

The way I see it, the most important function of the census is to have some data with which to learn and argue and practice how to strain truth from the confusing mass of the world. The second function is to know more about the userbase. The third function is often to scratch that itch of curiosity when someone has a question they want to know and they can only find with a nice big survey.

These are the censuses and their analysis posts. Welcome, and enjoy.

14Excuse me, would you like to take a survey?
Scott Alexander
16y
132
62Survey Results
Scott Alexander
16y
212
1012011 Less Wrong Census / Survey
Scott Alexander
14y
699
1232011 Survey Results
Scott Alexander
14y
513
352012 Less Wrong Census Survey: Call For Critiques/Questions
Scott Alexander
13y
481
942012 Less Wrong Census/Survey
Scott Alexander
13y
736
1202012 Survey Results
Scott Alexander
13y
653
472013 Census/Survey: call for changes and additions
Scott Alexander
12y
155
1122013 Less Wrong Census/Survey
Scott Alexander
12y
620
1122013 Survey Results
Scott Alexander
11y
560
292014 Less Wrong Census/Survey - Call For Critiques/Questions
Scott Alexander
11y
274
1162014 Less Wrong Census/Survey
Scott Alexander
11y
728
1282014 Survey Results
Scott Alexander
11y
283
45Lesswrong 2016 Survey
Elo
9y
273
482016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Results
namespace
9y
21
312016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Analysis: Part One (Meta and Demographics)
namespace
9y
17
442016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Analysis: Part Two (LessWrong Use, Successorship, Diaspora)
namespace
9y
12
242016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Analysis: Part Three (Mental Health, Basilisk, Blogs and Media)
namespace
9y
13
202016 LessWrong Diaspora Survey Analysis: Part Four (Politics, Calibration & Probability, Futurology, Charity & Effective Altruism)
namespace
9y
25
8Requesting Questions For A 2017 LessWrong Survey
namespace
8y
30
292017 LessWrong Survey
namespace
8y
75
202020 LessWrong Demographics Survey
B Jacobs
5y
6
182020 LessWrong Demographics Survey Results
B Jacobs
5y
7
52022 Less Wrong Census/Survey: Request for Comments
Screwtape
2y
29
972022 Unofficial LessWrong General Census
Screwtape
2y
33
482022 Survey Results
Screwtape
2y
8
432023 LessWrong Community Census, Request for Comments
Screwtape
2y
37
1692023 Unofficial LessWrong Census/Survey
Screwtape
2y
81
1502023 Survey Results
Screwtape
1y
26
232024 Unofficial LW Community Census, Request for Comments
Screwtape
8mo
32
1022024 Unofficial LessWrong Census/Survey
Screwtape
7mo
49
1092024 Unofficial LessWrong Survey Results
Screwtape
4mo
28