We did a bit of informal censusing last month to get to know our users in the best way possible: anonymously and collectively. You might have seen the survey, which we shared through email, our about:home page, and social media. You might have also noticed it came from our Bureau of Censusing (not an official team here), Department of Whimsy (also not an official department, but you better believe we’re doing some introspection now as to why not). It was totally voluntary and, like everything we do, about openness and transparency.

So in that spirit, let’s look at the results! You can find the full report here, if you’re into that sort of thing. There were 44 questions and a ton of interesting ways to slice the data, so for the sake of everyone’s tl;dr, we’re going to share a few highlights.

Demographics + Lifestyle

Starting with some basics, we had 123,183 people take this survey. 95.3% were Firefox users and 4.7% were not, so we’re really just looking at our users here.

72% of our survey takers were either between 18–34 years old or 55+ (44% and 28% roughly for each of those age groups respectively).

80.8% use PC, 12.4% use Mac, and 6.8% use Linux, though our Linux users pointed out that we should have made an option to pick more than one here because not everyone is monogamous to just one operating system.

Our Linux users can probably say “grapefruit” in more languages than you.

Speaking of our Linux folk, we found they tend to speak more languages than other OS users. 58% of Linux users speak more than one language, compared to 38% for Mac and Windows users.

When it comes to where Firefox users can be found when they’re at home, the majority grew up, and still live, in suburban areas (45% and 46%, respectively). Firefox users who live in rural areas, however, are more likely to leave their home to seek their fame and fortune elsewhere.

Just a small town Firefox user, living in a lonely world, took the midnight train going into a suburban and/or urban area.

57% of Firefox users who grew up in rural areas moved to the suburbs or city when they grew up. Only 35% of suburban users left, and 32% left the city.

This next stat might seem like a strange one to put under Demographics + Lifestyle, but when you spend as much time online as we do, tabs are a way of life. Surprisingly, the vast majority of Firefox users surveyed are tab-conservative: 76% had 1–5 tabs open at the time of taking the survey.

To the 40% of Firefox users surveyed who have taken 11+ vacation days this year: we salute you. Roam free!

To the 31% of Firefox users surveyed who have taken 0–2 vacation days this year: we salute you, too. Though we hope if you’re able you’ll take a day or two off soon for some self care.

The Sorting Hat

Firefox users largely identify as Gryffindors at 48%.

Yer a Gryffindor, probably.

Respondents who identified as Slytherins were about 9% more likely than the other houses to be online for over 6 hours a day. Are those Slytherins spending that extra time online in comment sections? We may never know.

Back to that loyal Gryffindor state of mind, though, we’re going to take a leap here and say Firefox users are probably good friends. 55% are willing to travel more than 2 hours to visit a friend for a day and 37% had their last phone call with a friend over a significant other, parent or coworker. That is heartwarming, especially because we thought no one wanted to talk on the phone anymore.

And Now for Some Likes & Dislikes:

[TL;DR intensifies]

Likes:

Cooking (at least 66% are good cooks, whether they actually like doing it or not)

Fall (32%) won out for favorite season, with spring and summer almost tying for 2nd place (only 16% for winter, because obvious reasons)

Star Wars (beat Star Trek for allegiance, but it was a close call 54.6% to 45.4%)

Recycling (52% said they always recycle. Nice.)

Travel (60% have traveled to at least one country outside of their own)

Uncomplicated coffee (53% said they just want it hot)

Art (71% love either looking at or making art)

Dislikes:

Most actors who have played Spiderman (59% chose “no” over Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Reeve Carney)

Bungee jumping (67% haven’t been bungee jumping, and 26% said they would never)

Online dating (79% have never tried it, 9% said “yes,” they’ve tried it, but “it’s a horror show.” Our condolences.)

Top knots

The word “jowls” (51% said it’s their least favorite over synergy, fluid, and moist)

So that’s that. We’ve gotten feedback from all sorts — including our metrics team — and will definitely be conducting a census again next year! What questions (or answers) do you wish had been included? Let us know!