Two assumptions that many people make about genealogy and family history researchers are that they are old and they are female.
Let's take a look at the stats from this Website and from The Ancestor Hunt Facebook Page for a short time period and see what they show. I am assuming that this website has a representative set of demographics to others in the industry. And I have over 26,000 Facebook Page Followers so that should provide some good stats as well
The Ancestor Hunt Website
Age
The Ancestor Hunt Facebook Page
Age and Gender
Yep, the visitors are indeed "older." And the numbers were fairly comparable between the last time I looked at this (in 2015) and now, with ONE exception - people searching their genealogy are getting a bit younger. In 2015, the total was 71% who where 55 or older. Now it is around 63%. So more enthusiasts under 55 are getting involved.
Another interesting statistic that has not changed from 2015 to now - look at Pages/Session and Average Session Duration - the numbers diminish as the visitors are younger. Are they not as interested (those who do visit) - or is their attention span less or are they just too busy?
What are your thoughts? Are you surprised at all? I know that there are efforts to get more "younger" folks interested in genealogy. It looks like it is working.
Hopefully that will happen before no one is able to read cursive writing, an understated challenge for the genealogy community in years to come. But technology will likely solve that problem anyway.
Please weigh in in the comments section.