Thanks to everyone who had recommendations -- every single one recommended MSR's Netscan. I'd previously known about it, but thought it had more data on individuals and individual groups than about usenet as a whole. So I'll keep digging for those larger-scope statistics, and will report back if anything useful comes up. Scott On Fri, 14 Mar 2003, Scott A. Golder wrote: : :I'm in the process of completing my thesis on the development of different :social roles in usenet, and am trying to find some demographic statistics :to shed some light on my qualitative findings. : :More specifically, I'm interested in knowing how many newsgroups are in :existence (with worldwide distribution), how many distinct people :participate in these groups, and what the gender balance is. : :If anyone knows of a source for such statistics and could point me to it, I :would appreciate it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott A. Golder golder@fas.harvard.edu http://www.scottgolder.net