Community Insights/Community Insights 2024 Report

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Community Insights 2024 Report

From March through April 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation Research team collected data from more than 3000 Wikimedians from all over the world through the Community Insights survey. These data help paint a picture of our Movement's demographics and communities' social and technical experiences. They also tell us whether we are progressing towards the goals in the annual plan and 2030 Strategic Direction, and help to guide the Foundation in better understanding how to support Wikimedia volunteers across roles.

This data is graciously provided by our committed communities, who keep the Wikimedia projects alive, and provide free knowledge to the world.

Key Insights from the 2024 data

Newcomers to a multi-generational movement

• While overall demographics in 2024 remained similar to 2022, newcomers – those who started editing in 2024 or 2023 – continue to add diversity to the Wikimedia Movement. Newcomers were more likely to be women (24% compared to 13% among seasoned editors) and more likely to be in the two youngest age groups (61% were under age 35, compared to 35% among seasoned editors).
• As in past years, newcomers found learning editing tools (76%) and learning to edit in general (74%) to be easier than learning editing policies (53%), indicating a space for intervention in helping to onboard and retain new Wikimedians.

Motivations to contribute to free knowledge

• New survey questions on editing motivations show that Wikimedians most value that their contributions help others (97%).
  • They also value learning new things while editing (94%), and accuracy – whether preventing misinformation or disinformation (94%), filling content gaps (93%), or fixing mistakes (92%) – as well as the overall wiki philosophy of openness and collaboration (91%).
• Social motivations – like mentoring, engaging others, and friendships made through the projects – were more prevalent among Admins and Organizers than among Editors who aren’t currently in these leadership roles.
• Youth (18-24) were more likely to find some instrumental benefits - like potentially helping their career, skills improvement, learning new things and positive recognition - to be important motivators for contributing compared to older editors.

Improving relationships, with more room to advance

• The 2023-2024 Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan focused on connecting the movement and infrastructural capacity of established editors, including those serving in administrative roles.
  • For the first time, more than half of respondents (51%) agreed the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives. This is almost double from only 26% in 2019 when we first measured this. Among admins, agreement increased from 40% in 2022 to 57% in 2024. Among editors in Established Wikimedia regions (Northern America and Northern & Western Europe), agreement increased from 30% in 2022 to 47% in 2024.
  • Affinity with the movement continues to be high, with 4 in 5 editors agreeing they recommend Wikimedia projects as a great place to contribute. Among admins and organizers, these proportions increased since 2022. However, respondents were a little more unsure about their feelings of belonging and voice on their projects in 2024.
  • Monitoring the resource capacity of those in leadership roles: Admins were less likely to agree they know how to address challenges in their roles in 2024 (83%) than they were in 2022 (92%), indicating potentially increasing complexity in the issues admins address. Although the large majority of Organizers felt they had access to people who can help them implement their programs and campaigns (86%), this proportion decreased slightly from 2022 (92%).

Demographics

One of the roles of the Community Insights survey is to understand who active editors are outside of their roles in the Wikimedia projects. One way we do this is by estimating the demographics of our communities based on a probability sample of current active editors -- the most accurate method available in the absence of a census. We do this to track how the makeup of our Movement changes over time, and how it represents or underrepresents the global population. This data informs our understanding of the Wikimedia Movement's progress towards goals such as the 2030 Strategic Direction towards Knowledge Equity and enables the measurement of Knowledge Gaps across our movement ecosystem.

Gender

Gender proportions of active editors remained stable in 2024, after a statistically significant increase of women in 2020 and gender diverse editors in 2022.

D1. Gender proportions of active editors, 2019 to 2024. Note: Gender categories are not mutually exclusive, and thus may add to over 100%.

Although women continue to be underrepresented among active editors overall, they are less underrepresented among some groups: Among newcomers – editors who started contributing in 2023 or 2024 – 24% identified as women, and among Movement Organizers, 34% identified as women. Women were less well represented among Admins, of whom only 7% identified as women.

D2. Proportions of women by contributor role and tenure

While in 2022 newcomers were also more likely to identify as gender diverse, there was no statistically significant difference between newcomers and seasoned editors in 2024. Five percent of active editors overall identified as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer or self-described their gender in 2024.

Age

The age groups of active editors continue to broadly reflect the global population distribution (see Figure D3).

D3. Age distribution of active editors compared to UN estimates. Note: The UN youngest age group is 15-24 rather than 18-24.

In 2024, 18-24 year olds became the largest age group among active editors, at 21% of the population. As the Community Insights survey does not survey editors under the age of 18, we may be underestimating the youngest age group in relation to the global age category (15-24 for the UN population estimate rather than 18-24). While we cannot know for certain, based on eligibility screening for the survey, we can estimate that 5 to 7 percent of active editors are under age 18 and are not included in the above data and charts (as was the case in 2022).

Newcomers are more likely to be younger: 37% of newcomers fell into the 18-24 age group (compared to 18% among seasoned editors) and 25% belonged to the 25-34 age group (compared to 16% among seasoned editors).

Although in 2022 the active editor population of 25-34 and 34-44 year olds closely resembled the UN global age estimates (within 1 percentage point), the 2024 data indicates the potential of a new gap among these two groups: The proportion of 25-34 year olds decreased from 20% to 17% from 2022 to 2024, and the proportion of 35-44 year olds decreased from 20% in 2020 to 16% in 2024. The proportion of 75-84 year olds increased slightly from 2022, from 3 to 4%, matching UN global estimates.

Education

D4. Educational attainment of active editors compared to OECD countries

Active editors continue to be highly educated: 81% have completed a post-secondary degree or higher among 2024 respondents, with 42% holding a postgraduate degree such as a Masters’ or Doctorate (see Figure D4). Although no global dataset for educational attainment exists, as a point of comparison we can look to the OECD countries’ 2023 education data: 47% of 25-64 year old adults in OECD countries have attained a post-secondary degree or higher, with 14% holding a Masters’ or equivalent, and only 1% holding a Doctorate or equivalent. Active editors were nearly twice as likely to have completed post-secondary education compared to populations of OECD countries.

Urban/Rural residence

The majority of respondents (61%) reported living in a metro area, either in a big city (41%) or in the metro area of a large city (20%). Another 25% reported living in a small city or town, while only 9% reported living in rural areas like a village (7%) or farm or home in the country (2%). While over half of global populations today live in urban areas, active editors -- as in past years -- skew a bit more urban than the globe.

D5. The majority of active editors lived in cities and metro areas in 2024.

Ethnic minority group belonging and discriminated group belonging

We again asked two questions on ethnic minority group and discriminated group belonging in the 2024 survey, adapted in 2022 from the European Social Survey questionnaire. We saw no statistically significant change from the 2022 results, and estimate that in 2024 13% of active editors identify as belonging to an ethnic minority group in their country of residence, while another 5% were unsure about whether they do; this again falls within the UN OHCHR’s estimate that 10-20% of the world’s population belongs to an ethnic minority group. One fifth (21%) of active editors identified as belonging to a discriminated group in their country of residence, and another 8% were unsure about whether they do.

D6. Proportions of active editors identifying as belonging to discriminated and ethnic minority groups

Race and Ethnicity in the United States

We asked respondents based in the US and UK about their race or ethnic identification. Unfortunately, due to a small sample size among UK respondents, we will not be reporting the UK data this year as we are not confident it reflects the UK editor population accurately.

Among US respondents, as in past years, Black (3%, compared to 14.2% of the US population) and Hispanic (3.2%, compared to 19.5% of the US population) people continued to be severely underrepresented among US active editors. However, comparisons to 2020 data indicate potential though modest increases among some historically marginalized groups, specifically: among editors who identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native (2.7% in 2024 compared to less than 1% in 2020), Black or African American (again, 3% in 2024 compared to less than 1% in 2020), and among editors who identify as multiracial, mixed, or who selected multiple identity categories (10% in 2024, compared to 4.3% in 2022, now reflecting the 2020 US census).

D7. Race and ethnicity among US-based respondents compared to 2020 US Census data. Note: All categories presented, both in the Community Insights survey and the US Census comparison data, are "Alone or in combination" and thus totals may add to over 100%.

Awareness and Affinity with the Wikimedia Movement

As a reminder, this data was collected from March 2024 through April 2024, and thus reflects a snapshot of editor sentiments in that time period.

Motivations for contributing to the Wikimedia projects

In 2024 we introduced a new series of questions about which motivations are important for editors to contribute to Wikimedia projects. We present some results of the main overall and differentiating motivations here, though the questions will be further analyzed as part of the Archetypes research project.

The 6 highest-ranked motivations (Figure A1), those where over 90% of respondents stated that they find them "Somewhat" or "Very" important, show Wikimedians overall value the altruism inherent in Wikimedia projects: that is, that their contributions help others. They also value learning new things while editing, and accuracy – whether preventing disinformation, filling content gaps, or fixing mistakes – as well as the overall Wiki philosophy of openness and collaboration.

A1. Top "Somewhat important" and "Very important" motivations among active editors.

Social motivations differentiated Admins and Organizers from Editors (see Figure A2). Admins and Organizers were more likely to find "Engaging and sharing opinions with other Wikimedians", "Exchanging skills with other Wikimedians", and "Mentoring or teaching others to contribute" somewhat or very important compared to Editors. Most strikingly, while 69% of Admins and 85% of Organizers found having made friends on the wikis to be a somewhat or very important motivation, only 30% of Editors responded that this is the case. Although Editors are a large and diverse group of people, many of whom may not necessarily want to engage others as they edit, these differences in social motivations may also indicate that some editors struggle to find community on the projects. As we do not know the causal direction of the motivations, these differences may alternatively indicate that editors who make friends on the projects are more likely to take on administrative or organizing tasks, or that taking on these takes makes it easier to develop friendships.

A2. Admins and Organizers were more likely to find social motivations important for contributing than Editors were.

Youth (18-24) were more likely to find potential career benefits (40% somewhat or very important, compared to 26% among older editors), improving writing, research or coding skills (79% compared to 70%), having their contributions recognized positively by other Wikimedians (80% compared to 75%), and learning new things (97% compared to 93%) to be somewhat or very important compared to older editors.

The Wikimedia Foundation

Communication from the Wikimedia Foundation

The percentage of active editors who agreed that the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives increased substantially in 2024, to 51%. This is the first time that more than half of respondents agreed with the statement.

A3. Agreement that the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about their projects and initiatives has increased over time.

Among Admins, agreement with this statement increased from 40% in 2022 to 57% in 2024, while disagreement decreased from 34% to 22%. Among Editors, agreement increased from 36% in 2022 to 49% in 2024, and disagreement decreased from 21% to 16%. Among Movement Organizers, differences were not statistically significant from 2022 to 2024, but continued to follow trends in improvement since 2020 (when only 42% of Organizers agreed the Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives).

A4. Agreement that the Wikimedia Foundation communicates well about its projects and initiatives increased among Admins and Editors.

As in 2022, 2024 data indicated differences between grouped Wikimedia regions as well as differences over time within regions. Those from Established regions are catching up with Developing regions (53%) and Emerging regions (61%) - but still less likely to agree on this question (47%). Among those in Emerging regions, agreement increased once again from 2022 (52%), and agreement among those in Established regions increased from 30% in 2022. We saw no statistically significant change since 2022 among respondents in Developing regions.

A5. Agreement and Disagreement on Wikimedia Foundation communication by project, over time.

We also saw statistically significant increases in agreement on our large projects including Commons, Wikidata, and German, English, French, Italian, and Russian Wikipedias. Most notably, agreement among English and French-language Wikipedians nearly doubled since 2022.

A6. Agreement on Wikimedia Foundation communication by newcomer or seasoned editor status, over time.

This year also saw agreement levels amongst seasoned editors catch up with newcomers for the first time. While in past surveys newcomers and seasoned editors were quite different, in 2024 seasoned editors reached similar levels of agreement to newcomers, both at around the 50% mark.

As always, we see this question as both indicating room for improvement for the Foundation, while also demonstrating measured progress over time in communicating with a multifaceted global Movement. We caution that this question is purposefully broad in order to understand a general sentiment across contributors, and thus it cannot distinguish between sentiments about how the Foundation communicates and what the Foundation communicates.

Confidence in the Wikimedia Foundation

Overall, 62% of contributors agreed that they are confident in the Wikimedia Foundation’s ability to support the global movement, a 3% increase since 2022. Among Admins, agreement increased from 48% in 2022 to 61% in 2024.

A6. Agreement on confidence in the Wikimedia Foundation to support the global movement has remained steady, with a modest increase since 2022.

Slightly more than half (52%) of contributors agreed that the Wikimedia Foundation has the right programs and strategies to support the 2030 goal of "becoming the central infrastructure of free knowledge, where anyone will be able to join us", a 4% decrease (and return to 2020 agreement proportions) from 2022.

Contributor Engagement

Four statement scales are used to consider engagement among active editors:

• I would recommend Wikimedia projects as a great place to contribute.
• The Wikimedia vision is to freely share in the sum of all knowledge. This vision inspires me to contribute more to Wikimedia projects than I would somewhere else.
• I take pride in contributing to the Wikimedia projects.
• I expect to be contributing to Wikimedia two years from now.

Figure A7. Agreement among active editors on four engagement statements.

Contributors continued to share a high level of agreement to engagement indicators about the extent they identify with, are inspired by, and promote being a part of the Wikimedia movement and its projects. On all scales, a large majority of respondents agreed, ranging from 79% to 87% agreement overall. Overall agreement on the "vision (to share in the sum of all knowledge) inspires me to contribute" statement increased slightly from 76% to 79% since 2022, while all other items showed no statistically significant differences.

Across roles, agreement among Admins increased since 2022 on the great place to contribute statement (74% to 81%) and inspiring vision statement (70% to 81%). Among Organizers, agreement increased since 2022 on the "great place to contribute" statement (86% to 92%) and since 2020 on the "pride in contributing" statement (93% to 97%).

Sense of belonging, having one’s voice heard in their community and the broader movement, and satisfaction with decision making

We asked respondents to rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with the following statements:

• I feel like I belong in the Wikimedia movement
• I feel respected in the Wikimedia movement
• I feel that my voice is heard in decisions made in my community
• I feel that my voice is heard in decisions made in the Wikimedia movement
• There is open and honest communication between different organizations and groups in the Wikimedia movement
• I am satisfied with the Wikimedia movement's decision-making processes

A8. Belonging, voice, and communication in the Wikimedia movement in 2024

Overall, contributors agreed most with "I belong in the Wikimedia movement" (64%) and "I feel respected in the Wikimedia movement" (52%). However, agreement on both statements decreased by 4% since 2022, with increases in "I'm not sure" responses. Agreement decreased and unsure responses increased on the "I feel that my voice is heard in decisions made in my community" statement (43% agreement and 11% unsure in 2022 to 38% agreement and 15% unsure in 2024) and the "I feel that my voice is heard in decisions made in the Wikimedia movement" statement (29% agreement and 14% unsure in 2022 to 26% agreement and 17% unsure in 2024) statements as well. These relatively modest changes may reflect more general uncertainty and may not be a cause for concern, though they should be monitored in the long term.

Safety & Inclusion

As in 2022, the 2024 safety and inclusion section of the survey asked questions about how often active editors felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing on the Wikimedia projects, how often they experienced harassment, and whether they know how to get help if they do experience harassment. We likewise asked about their sentiments towards user conduct policies in their communities.

Rules or laws which cause hesitancy to contribute

S1. As in 2022, contributors to Russian and Chinese-language Wikipedias were more likely to state that there are laws where they live which make them hesitant to contribute. In 2024, contributors to South Asian language projects also became more likely to state this is the case.

In 2024, 10% of active editors responded that there are rules or laws where they live which make them hesitant to contribute on Wikipedia or other wiki projects; this has not changed since 2020 or 2022. However, three notable exceptions exist to this statistic. Among Chinese-language Wikipedia editors, 41% reported that there were such rules or laws where they live. Among Russian-language Wikipedia editors, 43% responded Yes, while the proportion who were unsure increased from 15% in 2022 to 25% in 2024. Among South Asian language projects (grouped, "sasia_wps"), the proportion responding that there are laws or rules that make them hesitant to contribute increased to 30%, though we caution that the low weighted N for this group (N=31) means there are wide margins of error (±20%) and that this statistic more likely indicates "a difference exists" rather than a specific proportion.

Feeling unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikimedia projects

In 2024, 37% of active editors responded they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikimedia projects at least once in the preceding 12 months. This is a statistically significant increase since 2020, when 33% responded they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable, though not a statistically significant difference from 2022, when 35% had responded as such.

Compared to Editors (36%), Admins and Organizers were more likely to indicate they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable (43% for both).

S2. Percent of respondents who indicated feeling unsafe or uncomfortable in the 12 months preceding the survey, overall and by gender.

Women (43%) and gender diverse editors (46%) were more likely to indicate having felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing, while men were less likely to do so (36%). However, the proportion of men indicating having felt unsafe or uncomfortable increased from 33% in 2022 to 36% in 2024, while remaining stable among all other gender responses. Those who identified as belonging to a discriminated group in their countries of residence (50%) were likewise more likely to indicate having felt unsafe or uncomfortable compared to those who did not identify as such (32%). As in 2022, there were no statistically significant differences on this question among those who identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group compared to those who did not identify as such.

Comparing across the survey’s project groups, Spanish-language Wikipedia (48% compared to 37% among all other projects), Italian-language Wikipedia (52% compared to 37%), Russian-language Wikipedia (47% compared to 37%), Chinese-language Wikipedia (49% compared to 37%) and Portuguese-language Wikipedia contributors (61% compared to 35%), were more likely to have felt unsafe or uncomfortable compared to all other project contributors. English-language Wikipedia contributors (33% compared to 39%) and Wikidata contributors (22% compared to 37%) were less likely to have felt unsafe or uncomfortable compared to contributors on all other projects.

Harassment in Wikimedia spaces

In 2024, as in 2022, 25% of active editors responded that they had been harassed in a Wikimedia space at least once in the 12 months preceding the survey. As with other safety data in the Community Insights report, there was variation among role types, projects, and demographic categories on this question.

Admins (42%) and Organizers (32%) were more likely to respond that they had experienced harassment compared to Editors (23%).

S3. Respondent experiences of harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey, by contributor role type. Admins and Organizers were more likely to indicate they had experienced harassment than Editors were.

While in 2022 women were more likely to respond that they had experienced harassment, differences in 2024 were not statistically significant; 28% of women responded they experienced harassment at least once in the previous 12 months, while 25% of all other gender respondents said so in 2024. Gender diverse editors were not statistically significantly different in their responses either, with 23% responding they had experienced harassment compared to 26% among all other respondents. Among men, the proportion responding they had experienced harassment (24.5%) increased since 2020 (21%). Those who preferred not to state their gender were most likely to respond that they had experienced harassment (41%, an increase from 27% in 2022).

Those who identified as belonging to a discriminated group in their countries of residence were more likely to respond that they had experienced harassment (35%) compared to those who did not identify as such (22%).

Contributors to Italian-language (18%) and Dutch-language (12%) Wikipedias were less likely to respond they had experienced harassment than contributors to other projects (26%). The proportion of Portuguese-language Wikipedia users responding they had experienced harassment decreased from 67% in 2022 to 35% in 2024. We caution that the margins of error for this data point are large due to a small sample size among ptwiki contributors (N = 35 in 2024) and thus encourage readers to interpret this data point as “a difference exists” rather than a precise percent of harassment experience and change.

Knowing where to get help

Overall, 42% of active editors agreed that they know how to get help if someone is harassing them on Wikimedia projects, a decrease from 46% in 2022.

There were differences in responses to this question based on role and tenure: Compared to Organizers (59%) and Editors (37%), Administrators were most likely to agree they know how to get help (70%), though more disagreed (17%) in 2024 than they did in 2022 (11%). Compared to seasoned editors (45%) – those who had been contributing since 2022 or earlier – newcomers (31%) were less likely to agree they knew where to get help.

S5. Percent of respondents who agreed they know where to get help if they experience harassment

Despite substantial variation in processes and procedures for dealing with on-wiki conflicts across projects and languages, responses on this question across project groups were similar with the exceptions of Japanese and Russian-language Wikipedia editors: only 20% of jawiki editors agreed they knew where to get help while 47% disagreed, and although ruwiki respondents agreed at a somewhat similar rate (36%), they were more likely to disagree (38%) compared to other project contributors (28%).

Confidence in getting needed support

Similar to knowing how to get help, 45% of contributors overall agreed they felt confident they would get the support they needed if they were attacked, bullied, or harassed. However, again there was variation on this question. Admins (54%) and Organizers (53%) were more confident than Editors (43%) that they would get the help they need.

As in 2022, gender diverse respondents were less likely to agree they felt confident they would get the support they need if they were harassed (33% compared to 45% among all other gender categories). Likewise, people who identified as belonging to a discriminated group in their country of residence (36%) were less likely to agree they felt confident they would get the support they need compared to those who did not identify as belonging to a discriminated group (48%).

User conduct policies

Sentiments on user conduct policies remained stable from 2022 to 2024.

Overall, 60% of respondents agreed that the user conduct policies on the projects are appropriate for their community or communities; 54% agreed that they are sufficient for their community or communities; while a relatively smaller percent – 45% – were satisfied with how user conduct policies were enforced on their wikis. Again, we saw differences across roles, projects, and demographic groups.

S6. Distribution of responses to three statements on user conduct policies. These statements were prompted by the question "For the Wikimedia projects you participate in, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about user conduct policies?"

Organizers were more likely to agree that the user conduct policies were appropriate (68%) and sufficient (62%) compared to Editors (58% agreed on appropriate, 53% agreed on sufficient), while Admins (64% and 56%) were not statistically significantly different from either group. Differences in agreement between the three roles on the question of enforcement of user conduct policies were not statistically significant, however 44% of Admins agreed, 45% of surveyed Editors agreed, and 49% of Organizers agreed.

In 2024, men were more likely to agree that user conduct policies were appropriate (61% compared to 56% among all other gender responses), sufficient (55% compared to 49%), and that they were satisfied with enforcement (48% compared to 37%). Women (36%) and gender diverse respondents (31%) were less likely to agree they were satisfied with enforcement.

As in 2022, those who identified as belonging to a discriminated group were less likely to agree that policies are appropriate (52%) or sufficient (44%) compared to those who did not identify as such (63% for appropriate, and 59% for sufficient). They were likewise less likely to agree they are satisfied with how user conduct policies are enforced on their wikis (36%) compared to those who did not identify as belonging to a discriminated group (49%).

Role-specific questions

We asked a few small sets of role-specific questions of survey participants depending on their on- and off-wiki roles or their relative newness to editing. This included questions specific to on-wiki contributing, learning to edit, on-wiki administration, and movement organizing.

On-wiki contributors

For respondents who indicated that they create, contribute, and/or edit content on at least one Wikimedia project, we asked to what extent they agree or disagree with two statements:

• I am satisfied with how decisions are made in my Wikimedia project or activities
• I am confident in the ability of admins on my project to make fair decisions about user conduct issues

R1. On-wiki contributor satisfaction with decision-making in their project or activity, and confidence in admins to make fair decisions.

Overall, 49% of contributors were satisfied with how decisions are made in their project or activities, a return to 2019 levels. However, respondents did not necessarily disagree more, but instead became more unsure (11% compared to 7% in 2022) or neither agreed nor disagreed (25% compared to 23% in 2022).

Contributors to Commons were less likely to agree about decision-making in 2024 (50%) than they were in 2022 (61%), as were those on French-language Wikipedia (45% compared to 58% in 2022). Those who serve as Admins were also less likely to agree in 2024 (61%) compared to 2022 (72%), as were Editors (47% compared to 52% in 2022).

More than half of respondents overall (56%) were confident in the ability of admins on their project to make fair decisions about user conduct issues, with no statistically significant change in agreement since 2022, though respondents were again slightly more unsure (10% compared to 7% in 2022). French-language Wikipedia respondents agreed less (54%) in 2024 than they did in 2022 (66%). We found no other statistically significant changes on this question among project groups or roles.

Respondents who identified as men (51%) were more likely to agree they are satisfied with how decisions are made in their project or activities compared to all other gender respondents (43%), while those who were categorized as gender diverse (31%) were less likely to agree. Men were also more likely to agree (58%) that they are confident in the ability of admins to make fair decisions about user conduct issues, while women (50%) and gender diverse (44%) respondents were less likely to agree.

Those who identified as belonging to a discriminated group were less likely to agree (39%) they are satisfied with how decisions are made in their project or activities compared to those who did not identify as such (54%), and were also less likely to agree (46%) that they have confidence in admins to make fair decisions about user conduct issues compared to those who did not identify as belonging to a discriminated group (59%). Those who identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group in their country of residence were likewise less likely to agree they have confidence in admins to make fair decisions (51%) compared to those who did not identify as such (57%).

Newcomers’ ease of learning to edit

For contributors who indicated they had started editing in 2022, 2023 or 2024, we asked three questions regarding the ease of generally learning to edit, the ease of learning to use editing tools, and the ease of learning the editing policies. As in 2022, newer editors were more likely to agree that learning the editing tools (76%) and generally learning to edit (74%) were easy compared to learning editing policies (53%).

R2. Ease of learning editing tools, policies, and overall learning how to edit among respondents who started editing in 2022, 2023, or 2024.

Administrators

Learn more from recent research about administrators: see the Research team's 2024 Wikipedia Administrator Recruitment, Retention, and Attrition in-depth study.

We asked respondents who indicated they serve in an on-wiki administrative role (for example, as an admin, bureaucrat, or steward) to what extent they agree or disagree on three statements specific to their role: “When I am presented with a challenge in my on-wiki role…”

• I usually know how to address it
• I am usually able to address it in the way I think is most appropriate
• I usually have the resources I need to address it

R3. Administrators' capacity to address challenges and access to necessary resources within their role

A majority of on-wiki admins agreed that, when presented with a challenge in their role, they usually know how to address it (83%, decreased from 92% in 2022) and are able to address it in the way they think is most appropriate (87%). As in 2022, fewer agreed they usually have the resources they need to address challenges (75%).

Admins from Established regions were more likely to agree (91%) that they are able to address challenges and have the resources to do so (79%) than those from Emerging and Developing regions (grouped), where 82% agreed they are able to address challenges in the way they think is most appropriate and 68% agreed they have the necessary resources.

Organizers

For respondents who indicated that they organize Wikimedia projects, events, campaigns or groups, we asked to what extent they agree or disagree with five statements specific to their roles as organizers:

• I have people who can help me with my Wikimedia events, campaigns, groups, or partnerships.
• I have access to the right tools or software to implement my Wikimedia events, campaigns, groups, or partnerships.
• I have access to documentation and training materials to help me implement my Wikimedia events, campaigns, groups, or partnerships.
• I have access to communications materials and tools that help me reach the people that I want to engage with my events, campaigns, groups, or partnerships.
• I have access to funding that I need to implement my events, campaigns, groups, or partnerships.

R4. Organizer access to social and material support to implement their projects.

Organizers most often agreed they have people who can help them (86%), though this decreased since 2022, when 92% of Organizers agreed. Three quarters agreed they have the right tools or software (74%), documentation and training materials (72%), and communications materials to reach the people they want to engage (68%). Slightly more than half (51%) agreed they have access to the funding they need to implement their events, campaigns, groups or partnerships.

Key terms

• Active editors - Active editors are defined as those who had made at least 5 edits in two of the three months preceding the survey, for a minimum of 10 edits for eligibility for the survey. When we refer to "active editors", we mean our randomly sampled survey participants -- that is, all "Editors", "Organizers" and "Admins" referred to in "Roles" below -- and, by extension, all active editors across Wikimedia spaces as the survey is meant to estimate data for the entire population.

• Gender diverse - We borrow the term “gender diverse” from the UN OHCHR and other groups, and use it as an umbrella term for all respondents who identified as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, and all other non-binary gender descriptors, as well as users who identified with multiple gender descriptors. For the categories of men and women, all respondents who identified as men or women are included in the descriptive data and analyses (for example, a respondent who selected that they identify as a woman and as non-binary would be included in both the category for women and for gender diverse people). Thus, totals for gender charts may add to over 100%. We periodically use the language "categorized as gender diverse" to indicate that this is a researcher's word choice and variable construction combining multiple gender categories, identities, and self-descriptions within the survey rather than words that respondents might use to describe themselves.
• Newcomers and Seasoned Editors - Newcomers are defined as respondents who reported they began contributing to Wikimedia projects the year of the survey or the previous year (in 2024, this means those who started contributing in 2024 and 2023). Seasoned editors are those who began contributing before Newcomers (in the 2024 survey, those who began contributing in 2022 or earlier).
• Project Group - When we determine our samples, we stratify them by projects. Larger projects are their own strata, for example English or French Wikipedia, while for smaller wikis we combine projects by regional language mapping, such as the Central and Eastern European languages.

• Roles - For our analyses, we categorize respondents into three role types when analyzing differences between groups: Editors, Organizers, and Admins. Each category is mutually exclusive for the purposes of analysis, though respondents often occupy multiple roles.
  • Editors are users who indicated that they contribute to Wikimedia projects online, including Developers contributing code.
  • Organizers are respondents who indicated that they organize Wikimedia projects, events, campaigns, or groups, that they are a primary contact or staff of a Wikimedia Affiliate, or have received a grant (including those who identified as Editors and Developers).
  • Admins are respondents who indicated that they serve in an on-wiki adminstrative role (including those who are Editors, Developers, and Organizers).

• Regions - Based on the distribution of average regional signals, there are three groups: Emerging (Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific - 1st quartile), Developing (Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, & South Asia - Middle 50th percentile, 2&3 quartiles), Established (Northern America and Northern & Western Europe - 4th quartile). These regional groupings are based on the Wikimedia Foundation grants regions.

• Statistically significant - When we note that a difference is statistically significant, it means that our data indicates that there is a high likelihood that this difference is likely to reflect a broader population beyond our survey sample. However, when something is not statistically significant, that does not mean that a difference may not exist; it simply means our data cannot tell us whether it does.

Methodology

The 2024 Community Insights survey methodology primarily replicated the 2022 and 2020 survey methodology.

Sampling

We use stratified random sampling of active editors on all wikis, split into 23 strata of large wikis and grouped smaller wiki projects. The users were then sampled by editing activity category (edit bins) over the last year within those strata, in inverse proportion to that bin’s response rate for the 2022 survey. In total, 22,179 users across wiki projects were randomly selected into the sample for the 2024 Community Insights survey.

Eligibility criteria

• At least 5 edits in 2 of the 3 months preceding the survey (minimum 10 edits)
• “Email this user” feature was turned on (~85% of users)

Weighting

To account for variation in response rates, we use inverse propensity score matching by project strata and edit bin.

Response rates

Of the 22,179 contributors randomly selected and invited to participate from across Wikimedia projects, and 3610 (16.3%) agreed to be sent a link to the survey. Of those who opted in to take the survey, 3040 (84%) began the survey, and 2870 (73%) completed the entire survey. This results in a 11.9% cumulative response rate.

Analyses

Most tests of difference for the 2024 report were conducted with z-test comparisons of column proportions using the expss R package. All reported differences are statistically significant at the p ≤ 0.05 level, unless otherwise noted. Topline and crosstabulated results and margins of error were calculated using the pollster R package.