Demographic survey template: 6 questions to ask
Who are we talking to?
A demographic survey records the basic facts about who is answering. You use it to check that your sample matches the people you meant to reach, and to compare answers between groups. The Great Question template asks six questions: age, marital status, employment status, education, household income and ethnicity.
Questions it can answer
- Who are the people completing this survey?
- How should we adjust our message/product/service based on what we know about these folks?
- Is this the ideal group of folks for our target audience?
What is a demographic survey?
Demographic surveys are used to understand personal information from people. They are especially useful in the early stages of product development when you want to achieve a very high level understanding of who your users are.
Related guide: For screening participants with these questions, see our screener survey guide.
Do it faster with a Claude skill: Screener builder. Builds a first draft of this study in Claude that you can edit before you send it.
The questions in this template
These are the questions in the Great Question demographic survey template.
What is your age?
Single Select
- 17 or younger
- 18-24 years old
- 25-34 years old
- 35-44 years old
- 45-54 years old
- 55-64 years old
- 65-74 years old
- 75 years or older
What is your marital status?
Single Select
- Single, never married
- Married or domestic partnership
- Widowed
- Divorced
- Separated
Which best describes your employment status?
Single Select
- Full-time employed
- Part-time employed
- Self-employed
- Out of work and looking for work
- Out of work but not currently looking for work
- A homemaker/family caretaker
- Student
- Military
- Retired
- Unable to work
What is the highest level of education you have achieved?
Single Select
- No formal education
- High school diploma
- College degree
- Vocational training
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree
- Professional degree
- Doctorate degree
- Other
What is your household income?
Single Select
- Under $20,000
- $20,001 – $40,000
- $40,001 – $60,000
- $60,001 – $80,000
- $80,001 – $100,000
- $100,001 or over
- I don't know
How do you describe your ethnicity?
Single Select
- Native American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian
- Black or African American
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
- White
- Unknown
- Other/Prefer to self-describe
- Don't wish to answer
Questions you might add
These are our suggestions, not part of the Great Question template. Add them only if you will use the answers.
How do you describe your gender? Single choice: Woman, Man, Non-binary, Prefer to self-describe (text), Prefer not to say.
Which country do you live in? Dropdown.
Which best describes your job function? Single choice from a list that fits your market, plus Other (text).
How many people work at your organization? Single choice: 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-1,000, 1,001-5,000, More than 5,000.
How to run it
When to send. Put demographic questions at the end of a survey so they do not put people off before the main questions. The exception is when you use them to screen people in or out; then they go first, and only the screening questions should be required.
Localise before you send. The household income bands are in US dollars, and the ethnicity options follow US census-style categories. If your participants are outside the US, change the income bands to local currency and ranges that fit local incomes, and replace the ethnicity options with the categories your country uses. Check the education options too, since qualification names vary between countries.
What to keep. Only ask what you will use to filter, compare or check representativeness. If you will not use marital status, for example, delete it; each extra personal question costs you some completion. The income question has an "I don't know" option and the ethnicity question has "Don't wish to answer", but age, marital status, employment and education have no opt-out, so add "Prefer not to say" or make them optional if they are not needed for screening. Ethnicity is special category data under GDPR, so if you ask it you need a clear reason, explicit consent and a note on how the data is stored.
Sample size. If you want to describe a population, the margin of error is driven by the number of responses. As a rough guide, 100 responses gives about ±10 percentage points at 95% confidence, and 400 gives about ±5. If you only need demographics to describe a small study's participants, there is no minimum.
How to analyse. Start with counts and percentages for each question. Compare your sample against the population you meant to reach (customer data, census figures, or your recruitment targets) and note any group that is under-represented. When you cut other answers by a demographic group, flag any group with very few responses, because percentages from a handful of people move a lot.
Advantages
- Easy to distribute
- Very well known questions
- Great to use ahead of any study
Limitations
- Questions might be perceived as too personal
- Consider customizing answers based on current data
- To require or not require, that is the question.
Frequently asked questions
What are demographic survey questions?
Questions that describe the person answering rather than their opinions. This template asks six: age, marital status, employment status, highest level of education, household income and ethnicity. They let you check who took part and compare answers between groups.
Should demographic questions go at the start or the end of a survey?
At the end, in most cases. Personal questions up front can make people drop out before they reach the questions you care about. Move them to the start only when you are using them to screen people in or out.
Can I use this template outside the US?
Yes, after two changes. The income bands are in US dollars and the ethnicity options follow US census-style categories, so replace both with local currency bands and the categories used where your participants live.
Should demographic questions be required?
Only the ones you need for screening or quotas. Make the rest optional, and give sensitive questions an opt-out. The template's income and ethnicity questions already have one; add "Prefer not to say" to any other question you keep as optional.
Can I use these as screener questions?
Yes. Pick the two or three that decide eligibility, put them first, and keep the rest for after the person qualifies. The screener survey guide covers how to avoid giving away the "right" answer.