Demographic Questions in Questionnaires & Surveys

Questions about age, income, or gender appear very frequently in questionnaires – in fact, such demographic questions are actually quite straightforward to answer... or are they? In reality, they often remain unanswered in a survey. For this reason, empirical research has developed a specific strategy for their placement within the survey.

General Definition of Demographic Questions

Demographic questions generally collect data about respondents such as age, gender, education, marital status, net income, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, etc. These questions do not necessarily have to relate to the actual content of the survey, but serve mainly to better categorize respondents.

The questions themselves can be asked either in open or closed format.

• Example 1 (open question): State your age: ________
• Example 2 (closed single-choice question): Select your gender: ________

Typical Use of Demographic Questions

In practice, it has been shown that demographic questions at the beginning of a survey can have a deterrent effect on respondents. This is because not every person wants to provide sensitive information, such as details about their salary or sexual orientation. Some would stop the survey right there.

For this reason, in most empirical surveys, demographic questions are asked toward the end of the questionnaire. If the respondent stops the survey at the last question about their income, the previous answers can still be evaluated.

The most well-known demographic questions include:

• Age (Which age category do you belong to?)
• Gender (Which gender do you identify with?)
• Marital status (What is your current marital status?)
• Employment status (What is your employment status?)
• Highest level of education (What is your highest educational qualification?)

Additionally, there are questions about employment relationship, net income, or other topics.