Yesterday we released the first results of our Eurovision Fan Survey which saw us find out who the average fan was.
But what about Australians? We heard from over 200 of them... how do they compare to their European counterparts?
Age
Well to start with, we were able to collect more responses in the older age bracket, thanks to having more channels to recruit respondents from. We can’t make a comparison to international fans but the ages we received from Australians were:
Under 18 – 3%
18-24 – 23%
25-34 – 23%
35-44 – 22%
45-54 – 19%
55+ - 9%
Gender
More women are engaged as Eurovision fans than their international counterparts. 39% were women compared to 27% in Europe and 18% elsewhere. Additionally in the under 25 age group in Australia, this number rose to 47%.
Male – 59%
Female – 39%
Non-binary – 2%
Sexual Orientation
Australian Eurovision fans are well.. straighter than fans abroad, but they are still the minority.
45% of Australian Eurovision fans identified as heterosexual, compared to 34% in Europe.
Again this wasn't restricted by age as 47% of those under 25 also identified as being straight.
Heterosexual – 45%
Gay – 43%
Bisexual – 7%
Lesbian – 3%
Other – 3%
Relationship status
Due to more older groups taking part, it’s no surprise Australians are more likely to be in a relationship. 49% are single while 51% are either married or in a relationship.
Single – 49%
Married – 21%
In a relationship – 30%
Interests
Australians share the same top three interests – travel, languages and pop music, but at lower rates compared to Europeans.
Australians do however have a much higher interest in politics and slightly random… tennis and gaming.
Travel – 49%
Pop music – 32%
Languages – 29%
Politics – 29%
Geography -27%
Reading – 24%
Pop culture – 23%
History 22%
Olympics – 22%
Trivia – 20%
When did Australians get into the contest?
The most popular years Australians got into the contest were:
2014 - 18
2012 - 16
2015 - 13
2000 - 13
2009 - 12
2010 - 10
1985, 1976, 1998 and 1999 were the most popular from the 20th century.
How did they get into the contest?
Australians were much more likely to have become interested in the contest through general promotion, friends, their partner or their teacher compared to European fans. Over half of respondents from Europe got involved in the contest through their family, while this number was 30% for Australians.
General promotion – 38%
Parents – 24%
Friends – 16%
Artist competing – 8%
Other family – 6%
Partner - 5%
Teacher – 3%
What Eurovision activities do Australians get into?
Australians generally are slightly less engaged in most Eurovision activities like following all the national finals (19% compared to 45% in Europe), engagement with fan sites (76% compared to 87%), fan song contests (17% to 46%) and watching review and reaction videos (63% to 75%).
However they do tend to perform well with ‘in-person’ activities like going to Eurovision parties (44% to 32%), hosting Eurovision parties (39% to 18%) and being a member of their OGAE Club ( 29% to 19%).
When watching the contest, 93% watch the Grand Final live (96% in Europe) while only 82% watch the Semi Finals live (93% in Europe).
Social channels
Australian fans use Facebook more often daily for Eurovision news (33%) compared to Twitter (26%). This is different to Europe but is hard to compare considering we had more opportunities to promote the survey on Facebook to Australians.
Voting system
Australians are more likely to want the old voting system compared to European fans (28% compared to 12%). They also have higher rates of wanting 100% (surprisingly) and 100% jury vote (maybe not so surprisingly).
Current system – 55%
Old system – 28%
100% televote – 9%
100% jury – 2%
Other – 6%
Have many gone to the contest?
26% of Australians have been to the contest, compared to 31% of the Europeans we surveyed. Only 13% of respondents outside of Australia and Europe had attended.
Been 0 times – 74%
1-2 times – 20%
3-4 times – 3%
5 times or more – 3%
14% of Australian fans say they will be attending in Rotterdam, with 29% undecided and 57% staying at home.
Should Australia be in the contest?
Somewhat surprisingly there were 6% of respondents that said Australia shouldn’t be in the contest or they weren’t sure they should. These tended to be mainly from straight fans who had been following the contest for several decades.
This number was 11% in Europe and 10% in the rest of the world.
The countries that had the highest rates of no or not sure were (only those with five responses or more included):
Sweden – 33%
Ireland – 17%
Netherlands – 10%
France – 9%
Germany – 9%
UK – 9%
So there we have it, the differences of Australian fans compared to European fans. Though the one thing every single one of us has in common is... the love of the contest!