Community Safety/Reports
Community Safety Survey Wave 3 Results
In September and October of 2022, we deployed the 3rd Community Safety survey on 4 language Wikipedias: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Farsi Wikipedia data collection was paused in September and will resume in January 2023.
The question asked of users was:
“In the last 30 days, have you felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikipedia (xx.wikipedia.org)?”
with xx denoting the Wikipedia language (for example, for French it was “fr.wikipedia.org”).
The options to respond were: “Yes,” “No,” and “I'm not sure.”
A few notes about reading this data
- Percents reported unweighted reflect the actual responses to the survey.
- Percents reported weighted reflect the responses to the survey with weights applied to shape the data to the distribution of editors on the wiki by “edit bucket” (a user having made 5 to 99 edits, 100 to 999 edits, or 1000 or more edits).
- We report weighted data when we see a statistical difference in how different edit bucket users respond to the question. This helps to make the data more reflective of the actual population of the wiki.
- If you want to apply this data to the broader population of the wiki, make sure to look for the margin of error! For example, note the difference in meaning between:
- “77% of survey respondents said that they did not feel unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to English Wikipedia in the month before the survey”
- “We estimate that 76% to 79% of English Wikipedians felt safe contributing to English Wikipedia in the month before the survey”
- The first example tells us about the results of the actual survey, while the second example approximates how the overall population feels (those who were surveyed, and those who were not) based on the survey results, a 95% confidence interval, and margin of error.
With that, here are the results of our Wave 3 analyses for each wiki:
English Wikipedia
For the English Wikipedia Wave 3 data, a chi-squared test found no differences in how users from different “edit buckets” (5 to 99 edits, 100 to 999 edits, and 1000 or more edits) responded to the survey. We thus report unweighted data.
Based on the responses to the survey, we estimate that users on English Wikipedia overall:
- 14 to 18% felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to English Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 74 to 78% did not feel unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to English Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 7 to 11% were unsure about whether they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to English Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
| In the last 30 days, have you felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)? | Survey Results for En.WP (Unweighted) | Estimates for En.WP population (Margin of Error = ±1.99, Confidence Interval = 95%) |
|---|---|---|
| No | 75.7% | 73.7 to 77.7% |
| I'm not sure | 8.7% | 6.7 to 10.7% |
| Yes | 15.6% | 13.6 to 17.6% |
Spanish Wikipedia
For the Spanish Wikipedia Wave 3 data, a chi-squared test found no differences in how users from different edit buckets (5 to 99 edits, 100 to 999 edits, or 1000 or more edits) responded to the survey. We thus report unweighted data.
Based on the responses to the survey, we estimate that users on Spanish Wikipedia overall:
- 18 to 26% felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Spanish Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 66 to 74% did not feel unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Spanish Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 5 to 13% were unsure about whether they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Spanish Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
| In the last 30 days, have you felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikipedia (es.wikipedia.org)? | Survey Results for Es.WP (Unweighted) | Estimates for Es.WP population (Margin of Error = ±3.94%, Confidence Interval = 95%) |
|---|---|---|
| No | 69.6% | 65.7 to 73.5% |
| I'm not sure | 8.7% | 4.8 to 12.6% |
| Yes | 21.7% | 17.8 to 25.6% |
Persian Wikipedia
Not available for September-October 2022.
French Wikipedia
For the French Wikipedia Wave 3 data, a chi-squared test found differences in how users from different edit buckets (5 to 99 edits, 100 to 999 edits, or 1000 or more edits) responded to the survey[1]. We thus report weighted data.
Based on the responses to the survey, we estimate that users on French Wikipedia overall:
- 10 to 17% felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to French Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 79 to 86% did not feel unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to French Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 1 to 8% were unsure about whether they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to French Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
| In the last 30 days, have you felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia.org)? | Survey Results for Fr.WP (Unweighted) | Survey Results for Fr.WP (Weighted) | Estimates for Fr.WP population (Margin of Error = ±3.58%, Confidence Interval = 95%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| No | 81.7% | 82.3% | 78.7 to 85.9% |
| I'm not sure | 4.7% | 4.6% | 1.0 to 8.2% |
| Yes | 13.6% | 13.1% | 9.5 to 16.7% |
Portuguese Wikipedia
For the Portuguese Wikipedia Wave 3 data, a chi-squared test found no differences in how users from different “edit buckets” (5 to 99 edits, 100 to 999 edits, and 1000 or more edits) responded to the survey. We thus report unweighted data.
Based on the responses to the survey, we estimate that users on Portuguese Wikipedia overall:
- 21 to 29% felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Portuguese Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 60 to 68% did not feel unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Portuguese Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
- 7 to 15% were unsure about whether they had felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Portuguese Wikipedia in the 30 days before the survey.
| In the last 30 days, have you felt unsafe or uncomfortable contributing to Wikipedia (pt.wikipedia.org)? | Survey Results for Pt.WP (Unweighted) | Estimates for Pt.WP population (Margin of Error = ±3.89%, Confidence Interval = 95%) |
|---|---|---|
| No | 64.2% | 60.3 to 68.1% |
| I'm not sure | 10.8% | 6.9 to 14.7% |
| Yes | 25.0% | 21.1 to 28.9% |
Additional Notes
| Wiki | Response Rate[2] | Number of Responses | % of Users Displayed the Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Wikipedia | ~22% | 2,436 | 3% |
| Spanish Wikipedia | ~17% | 618 | 10% |
| Persian Wikipedia | NA | NA | NA |
| French Wikipedia | ~15% | 750 | 10% |
| Portuguese Wikipedia | ~18% | 636 | 20% |
Past Results
Please note, if you are comparing current results to past results, to pay attention to the margins of error. Overlapping margins of error between waves mean that a change seen may not be statistically significant.
- ↑ X2 (4, N = 749) = 10.193, p = .037
- ↑ We estimate response rates by calculating the number of unique responses after data cleaning divided by the number of unique survey session tokens from impressions. This gives a slightly smaller response rate than the actual, as users who clear their browser cookies or switch devices may have the survey shown to them again and WMF staff also force the survey to be shown in order to test for quality assurance.