The youngest members of Generation Z — those who are 13 right now — hadn’t been born yet when Reddit was founded back in the Dark Ages of the Internet (2005). The oldest Gen Z’ers were 10 or younger at the time.
Yet Gen Z at large (ages 13-24) has pretty much taken over the popular “social news aggregation” site, now accounting for one-third of its user base — the most of any generation.
It’s a testament to Reddit’s enduring popularity. And the raw numbers back it up: as of this writing, the site clocked in at No. 18 on Amazon Alexa’s ongoing ranking of worldwide website traffic. Looking at web traffic in the U.S. alone, Reddit is ranked No. 6, trailing only tech industry titans like Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
Taking a look at the overall numbers, about one in five Americans ages 13+ said they use Reddit.
For the uninitiated, the site allows users to post, upvote, and comment on content that’s relevant to a certain topic on a page called a subreddit (like r/news or r/music — there are currently 138,000 ‘active’ subreddits).
Some other demographic trends at play on Reddit: the site’s users lean male (59%) and liberal (53% to 25%), and usage is fairly even across income brackets.
Redditors Are Tech-Savvy, Even Among Their Peers
Reddit users outpace non-users in several key areas of tech adoption. Even when looking solely at respondents who are under age 35, Redditors are more likely than non-users to shop online, bank online, and spread the news of new technology.
What’s more, Reddit users are twice as likely as non-users to say they “pay the most attention” to advertisements that they see online or on social media, as opposed to traditional advertising channels.
In case you needed any more confirmation of how forward-facing Reddit users are compared to the rest of the U.S. populace, just look at their feelings about the idea of getting robotic implants.
Despite its massive daily traffic, Reddit has largely flown under the radar in the public eye. In fact, nearly a quarter of Americans surveyed said they had never heard of Reddit before. The typical Redditor is a liberal young man who’s all-in on the digital economy and who pays close attention to online ads. He might also be in the market for a bionic eye implant, too.
