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Bloggers are younger and better-educated, but earn less than the general US adult (18+) population.

They are also more likely to be single, male, and actively engaged in new media, according to a study by BIGresearch, MarketingCharts reports.

Of users that blog occasionally or regularly (26 percent of those polled):

• 53.7 percent are male.
• Nearly half (44.7 percent) are married.
• One in 10 (10.4 percent) are students.
• 28.4 percent hold a professional or managerial position.

Bloggers have a lower average income than most adults ($55,819 vs. $56,811) and are better educated (14.3 years of education vs. 14.2).

They also tend to be younger, with an average age of 37.6, compared with 44.8 for the US adult population:

Media Use

Use of new media and technology is more prominent among bloggers:

Yet bloggers also rely on traditional media, with magazines ranking as the highest trigger for an online search, cited by 51.6 percent, followed by reading articles and watching broadcast TV:

Ethnic minorities are highly represented among bloggers:

• 12.2 percent of bloggers are African American/Black (compared with 11.4 percent of the general population)
• 20 percent are Hispanic (vs. 14.8 percent).
• 3.7 percent are Asian (vs. 2.0 percent).

White/Caucasians are 76.1 percent of all adults, but among those who blog regularly or occasionally, just 69.7 percent are white.

Political Affiliation

Of all registered voters, 24.6 percent say they regularly or occasionally blog. Of these:

• 37.6 percent are Libertarians.
• 26.9 percent are Democrats.
• 25.7 percent are Independents.
• 22.9 percent are Republicans.

"Bloggers are a diverse group and not who you would expect," said Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch. "This diversity provides political bloggers with a forum to discuss issues or maybe be influenced by others, while candidates have an opportunity to reach interested voters."

About the survey: The Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 11), from which this data is culled, polled 15,727 participants. It is conducted bi-annually. A summary of the blogger-related findings are available via BIGresearch.