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Demographic Profiling of Victorian Government Website Visitors 2007
From September 2006 to September 2007, the Victorian Government conducted an online survey to ascertain the preferences and demographic profile of visitors to all of the government's websites. Almost 250,000 surveys were completed. A summary of the survey responses is provided below.
Employment Type
The purpose of this question was to try and ascertain what percentage of our visitors were government employees and what percentage were from the public. 14.18 % of survey participants were from Government (a combination of state, local and other) and the balance were from outside of government.
| Employment category | Percentage |
|---|---|
| State Government employee - Victoria | 7.68% |
| Local Government employee - Victoria | 1.98% |
| Other Government | 4.52% |
| Business employee | 22.45% |
| Education employee | 11.3% |
| Health employee | 6.18% |
| Unemployed | 3.36% |
| Student | 22.49% |
| Full time domestic duties | 4.51% |
| Retired | 4.45% |
| Other | 11.09% |
| Total | 100% |
Reason for Visiting a Victorian Government Website
Most survey participants - 58.43% - visited a Victorian government website for business or a combination of business and personal reasons. Less than a third of participants accessed Victorian government websites for personal reasons.
| Main Purpose for visiting Victorian government websites: | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Business purposes | 27.97% |
| Personal purposes | 41.57% |
| Combination of both | 30.46% |
| Total | 100% |
Online Activities
Most survey participants were using email at least monthly. Nearly 30 % of them were reading RSS news feeds and blogs but only 9% maintained their own web blog. More than 50% were watching video online and nearly 40% were using instant messaging. Mobile text messaging was used by almost 70% of all survey participants.
| Online activities performed monthly | Yes | No | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 94.63% | 4.83% | 0.54% | |
| Text messaging (via mobile) | 68.05% | 30.83% | 1.12% |
| Instant messaging | 38.42% | 57.78% | 3.81% |
| Read news feeds (RSS) | 28.99% | 65.10% | 5.91% |
| Read blogs | 28.94% | 67.48% | 3.57% |
| Maintain your own blog | 9.59% | 87.75% | 2.66% |
| Post to an online community or forum | 23.08% | 74.63% | 2.28% |
| Listen to podcasts | 17.91% | 79.37% | 2.72% |
| Watch video | 53.88% | 44.60% | 1.52% |
| Use Skype, VOIP (voice over IP) or Internet phone | 20.09% | 77.83% | 2.09% |
| Use the web via your mobile phone | 13.96% | 84.60% | 1.44% |
Survey participants who at the time did not access the technologies but were intending to in the future showed an increase in intent for maintaining a blog, posting to online forums, listening to podcasts and using voice over IP for telecommunications.
| Intended Online Activity | Yes | No | Unsure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscribe to News Feeds (RSS) | 19.89% | 72.55% | 7.55% |
| Read blogs | 34.21% | 58.86% | 6.93% |
| Maintain your own blog | 13.73% | 80.11% | 6.16% |
| Post to an online community or forum | 29.92% | 62.34% | 7.74% |
| Listen to podcasts | 28.99% | 62.69% | 8.32% |
| Watch video | 56.43% | 37.93% | 5.64% |
| Use Skype, VOIP (voice over IP) or Internet phone | 29.51% | 61.66% | 8.83% |
| Use the web via your mobile phone | 20.66% | 71.79% | 7.54% |
Government Services
Survey participants showed a desire for personalization of government websites and more interaction with government online. Geographical personalization was expressed as desirable by more than 60% of visitors. Accessing government services via mobile technologies did not seem to be in as greater demand as might be expected, but this percentage could be expected to increase as the technologies become more readily available with more service offerings from the private sector.
| Types of services would like the government to deliver online | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Information relevant to my street, suburb or region | 61.22% |
| Get a response to my questions via email | 60.23% |
| Ability to call someone directly to discuss something I have just read on a website | 47.46% |
| 'Live' chat with an operator while browsing a website | 29.20% |
| The ability to personalize the government websites I visit so they remember me next time | 27.22% |
| The ability to conduct transactions with government via my mobile phone (or PDA) | 11.53% |
| The ability to receive information from government via my mobile phone (or PDA) | 13.25% |
| The ability to view government websites via my mobile phone (or PDA) | 11.54% |
Multilingual Access to Government Websites
The survey tried to ascertain government website visitors preference for accessing government information and services online. A strong preference for accessing government information in English was indicated by 97% of survey participants.
| Is English the preferred language for reading websites? | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 97.14% |
| No | 2.86% |
| Total | 100% |
However, it is interesting to note that 13% of visitors spoke another language other than English at home.
| Is another language other than English spoken at home? | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 13.10% |
| No | 86.90% |
| Total | 100% |
The languages which were nominated as being the most prevalent were variants of Chinese/Cantonese/Mandarin. The next most popular were the Hindi, Italian and Spanish languages.
| Main language spoken at home if not English. | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Arabic | 4.13% |
| Cantonese | 5.81% |
| Chinese | 7.80% |
| Croatian | 1.49% |
| Czech | 0.46% |
| Dutch | 1.51% |
| French | 3.17% |
| German | 3.13% |
| Greek | 3.87% |
| Hindi | 6.24% |
| Hungarian | 0.72% |
| Indonesian | 1.89% |
| Italian | 4.15% |
| Japanese | 1.44% |
| Korean | 0.97% |
| Macedonian | 1.15% |
| Malaysian | 0.97% |
| Maltese | 0.58% |
| Mandarin | 2.36% |
| Maori | 0.48% |
| Polish | 1.47% |
| Portuguese | 1.04% |
| Russian | 1.51% |
| Samoan | 0.40% |
| Spanish | 4.08% |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | 2.46% |
| Thai | 0.92% |
| Turkish | 1.52% |
| Vietnamese | 3.50% |
| Other | 30.78% |
| Total | 100% |
Government Policies and Initiatives
Almost 64% of visitors to Victorian government websites are interested in commenting on state government policies and initiatives.
| Interest in being able to comment on government policies and initiatives | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Not interested | 19.77% |
| Unsure | 16.26% |
| Interested | 63.97% |
Visitor Demographic Profile
Just over 80% of visitors to Victorian government websites live in Victoria. The balance live elsewhere in Australia 13.82% and overseas 5.74%. Three quarters of Victorian visitors live in metropolitan Melbourne.
| Usual place of residence | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Melbourne | 57.24% |
| Regional / rural Victoria | 23.20% |
| Other within Australia | 13.82% |
| Outside Australia | 5.74% |
| Total | 100% |
Families with children living at home make up just over 50% of survey participants visiting Victorian government websites. Couples with no children, families where children have left home and group households make up another 30.7%.
| Current household structure | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Single person | 12.98% |
| Group of people flatting together | 6.99% |
| Couple no children | 15.17% |
| Young family - mainly pre school | 9.42% |
| Middle family - mainly school age children | 15.41% |
| Mature family - mainly teenage children or older | 26.44% |
| Family – children have left home | 8.54% |
| Prefer not to say | 5.05% |
| Total | 100% |
Survey participants in the 36-55 age bracket comprise 63% of survey participants.
| Age range spread | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Under 18 | 5.49% |
| 18-25 | 14.74% |
| 26-35 | 21.58% |
| 36-45 | 21.58% |
| 46-55 | 19.99% |
| 56-65 | 9.49% |
| Over 65 | 7.13% |
| Total | 100% |
61% of survey participants were female and 39% were male.
| Gender | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Male | 39.22% |
| Female | 60.89% |
| Total | 100% |
Further Information
eServices Unit
Citizen Access and Transformation
Department of Innovation, Industry and Development
State Government of Victoria
Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Email: administration@egov.vic.gov.au
Last updated: 4 July 2008
Related Links
- Victorian government web usage survey
- by Craig Thomler. eGov AU - eGovernment thoughts and speculations from an Australian perspective, July 16, 2008. Discusses and highlights some of the findings from the whole of Victorian government demographic profiling survey which canvassed nearly 250,000 web visitors to Victorian government websites over a 12 month period.
Related Articles
- Integrated Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling Report - 25 March 2004
- Key findings and analysis of results of the effectiveness of the Victorian Government's online presence and users of Government services via the internet.
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