Thanks for taking the time to run and analysis this survey.
Are there plans to include questions about income and/or financial stability in next year’s survey?
Rationale:
I believe this data would be valuable in providing individuals with a clearer understanding of the financial security of others in the EA community and could help newcomers assess whether the advice they receive is relevant to their own financial situation. Many recommendations and norms within EA—such as unconventional career choices, significant donation pledges, or risk-taking in pursuit of impact—can have vastly different implications depending on who’s making the recommendation or reinforcing the norms.
If a significant portion of the community has financial security, it’s possible that commonly shared advice assumes a level of stability that not all newcomers have. Understanding the financial realities of EA members could help provide more contextually appropriate guidance and ensure that discussions around impact, risk, and career planning are inclusive of people from diverse economic backgrounds.
I agree these would be interesting things to include.
We used to ask about income as part of our donation data section. But we’ve not included the donation questions since EAS 2020. If you like, I can provide further analyses of the income data from prior surveys. On the face of it, EA income and donations have been surprisingly low historically. But this is likely explained by the high percentage of student/very early career people in the community.
Also in 2020, we were asked to include a question about experiences of financial or employment instability as a child, which found relatively low levels. As noted in that post, we would generally recommend using a different measure if you want a proxy for SES, but this is the one we were asked to include. I do think that SES is a relatively neglected demographic (EA seems to be strikingly high SES background).
Thanks for taking the time to run and analysis this survey.
Are there plans to include questions about income and/or financial stability in next year’s survey?
Rationale: I believe this data would be valuable in providing individuals with a clearer understanding of the financial security of others in the EA community and could help newcomers assess whether the advice they receive is relevant to their own financial situation. Many recommendations and norms within EA—such as unconventional career choices, significant donation pledges, or risk-taking in pursuit of impact—can have vastly different implications depending on who’s making the recommendation or reinforcing the norms.
If a significant portion of the community has financial security, it’s possible that commonly shared advice assumes a level of stability that not all newcomers have. Understanding the financial realities of EA members could help provide more contextually appropriate guidance and ensure that discussions around impact, risk, and career planning are inclusive of people from diverse economic backgrounds.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Thanks for the comment!
I agree these would be interesting things to include.
We used to ask about income as part of our donation data section. But we’ve not included the donation questions since EAS 2020. If you like, I can provide further analyses of the income data from prior surveys. On the face of it, EA income and donations have been surprisingly low historically. But this is likely explained by the high percentage of student/very early career people in the community.
Also in 2020, we were asked to include a question about experiences of financial or employment instability as a child, which found relatively low levels. As noted in that post, we would generally recommend using a different measure if you want a proxy for SES, but this is the one we were asked to include. I do think that SES is a relatively neglected demographic (EA seems to be strikingly high SES background).