How Many People Read Blogs?

The short answer, according to PEW, is 11% of internet users regularly read blogs, and 58% don't have a clue. The funniest observation is that 5% of internet users blog on a daily basis...so that means about half of people who read blogs have one themselves.

Okay, fine. 11% of what number?

According to World Internet World Stats, that would be about 247 million Americans who use the Internet, which would lead me to the number of 27 million daily blog readers in North America. I find that hard to believe.

The last time such a study was released, it was claimed that 8 million had blogs, and 32 million read them, and even then, it was hard to believe.
Another survey from Hostway.

I note that even now, some of the bigger blogs like Daily KKKos gets just under a million hits a day, and a certain percentage of those hits are multiple hits from people reading the various dairies in the site. Of course, that doesn't take into account those who read via the RSS Feeds...but it can't be that many.

I suspect that many who said they read blogs really don't know what a blog is, or read blogs on Legacy Media websites, like CNN, MSNBC, FOX, or the various newspapers.I don't consider those blogs as part of the blogosphere.

I hope there is more forthcoming from this survey, and I'd like to look at their methods and how they asked the questions. I suspect we may never really get a real answer to  the question posed in the title of this post because of advertising concerns.

It would be bad for business.

Hat Tip: Digital Inspiration

For the Geek Impaired...Hat Tip is blogger short hand for..."and this is what I was reading when the urge to blog about it hit me"

I wonder how many bloggers suffer from OCD?