- The countries highlighted in the graphic above represent top 20 countries in which ARMY respondents currently live in.
- The data are not fully representative of the global distribution of ARMY. For instance, we know that there is a large number of Korean-ARMYs (as BTS is from South Korea), but Korean respondents only made up 1.8% of the data. We attribute this to the fact that our online presence only reaches so far, and reaching every single fan is a challenging (and nearly impossible) task, so there are likely many fans (in Korea and elsewhere) who never saw our survey.
- We hope to increase the number of each country’s respondents in future surveys, and ask for all of ARMY's help in spreading the word about future surveys to as many people as possible.
- That all being said, there’s a point to remember about percentage of a global fandom versus general popularity. Japan clearly loves BTS (they routinely top every major chart there), but Japanese ARMY only represented 1.1% of our sample. Does that mean that BTS are relatively unpopular in Japan as compared to in Mexico? No! ARMY is a global fandom, and Japanese ARMY being 1.1% of the global fandom’s population when Japanese people are 1.6% of the global population. This is the context with which one should understand and interpret our results.
- As you can see from the data above, ARMYs from different eras since before BTS's debut participated in the Census.
- While the 18-and-over demographic makes up nearly 70% of our respondents, the overall results reinforces the fact that ARMY is indeed diverse in age. They range from young people to those above 60 years old (2,416 respondents).
- Some may read the 7,575 number of male fans as insignificant. We do not view these results as such. 7500 is a large number of people, and male ARMY are a valuable part of our fandom. Rather, this finding is indicative to us that we must try to be better with our male outreach in future iterations of the Census. The 2020 Census was 11% male, and we have no explanation for why the data are so different this time around.
- We were glad that nearly 10,000 non-binary ARMYs were also able to be represented in this survey (up from roughly 3,000 in 2020).
- We are proud that our findings showcased the thousands of ARMY who are parents. We often hear about the ARMY moms and ARMY dads that exist within the fandom, and in our survey, a little over 63,000 of these ARMY parents were identified. *Edited for clarity.
- We asked for the respondent’s highest education level completed. Globally, only 6.7% of the world has some form of college degree, but 33% of more than half a million ARMY we counted have some form of college degree, with nearly 4,000 PhDs accounted for.
- With the largest age cohort being 18-29 year olds it follows that then that the largest categories for education received are a high school diploma (27.99%) and a Bachelor’s degree (23.57%).
- During this unique climate amidst the pandemic, it was important to us that we acknowledge those who were unemployed as a result of COVID-19.
- To further improve this categorization, future ARMY Census surveys will break this category down even further.
- This data above represents the top 10 industries that ARMYs work in. This does not include those who said they are currently unemployed or are students.
- What we hope to convey, especially to the general public, is that ARMY is made of everyday people with diverse career fields and from different industries. They may even be your neighbor or coworker.
- We know that many ARMYs have found ways to take their skills in the real world and implement them into their everyday activities as a part of the fandom.
- Based on feedback, responses, and industry resource guides that continue to be updated, we aim to further improve the categorization listings for future ARMY Census surveys.
- We would like to thank the many essential workers in the fandom who have worked hard to ensure the safety and protection of those around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- While this ARMY Census survey was primarily disseminated through Twitter, respondents were asked to select all of the different types of social media platforms they use. Displayed are the top five results.
