Demographics of the Respondents from the Annual Census of Data Visualization Society
Last year, the annual census survey by the Data Visualization Society was participated by 1,766 respondents, all practicing data visualization in their field. The survey has questions regarding personal information including but not limited to, current role, educational background, experience level, and tools used in data visualization, among others. The extracted file has more than 200 columns covering all questions.
Although data storytelling is not a new concept, data visualization has its firm roots in the 20th century based on idashboards info. With that in mind, using the results from the census, it would be interesting to know the demographics of the respondents practicing data visualization.
Starting with their years of experience, 75 percent of the people who answered the survey have 5 years or less experience in data visualization. While the remaining percentage has more than a decade of experience.
The majority of these individuals have learned data visualization mostly by self-learning without attending a formal course in data visualization. While there are few individuals who have learned this in a formal course or have learned data visualization in both formal and self-learning.
Furthermore, although most of the respondents did not have a formal education in data visualization, almost all have completed a bachelors degree and almost half of the respondents even have a master’s degree and 14 percent completed a doctorate degree.
In terms of their field of study, regardless of the level of education, those who practice data visualization mostly have completed a major in Science, Math, and Technology, Arts and Humanities, or Social Sciences. STEM is the most common field of study of the respondents with 37 percent of them have completed this in their master’s program while more than half or 54 percent in a doctorate program.
Now that we know their educational background as well as their tenure in practicing data visualization, let’s take a look at the gender representation of the respondents.
Over the past years, the tech-related jobs, where data visualization could fall under, is dominated by men representing 81 percent while women only hold 19 percent according to the study conducted by PWC. With the 1,766 respondents, we can take a glimpse of the gender representation of the data visualization professionals.
Unsurprisingly, since men have been dominating the field in recent years, data visualization, in the same manner, is represented by men at 57 percent. Although, it is noticeable that women are also well-represented and are close to balancing out the gender representation in this field.
Finally, a professional practicing data visualization has to have the technical knowledge in using the necessary tools for visualization. However, it is not only the technical knowledge that is important but also the creativity as it would not be a good data visualization if the story is not seen correctly by the viewer. A good combination of both technical and creativity is what makes a good data visualization professional. This actually is aligned with the result of the census as the majority of the people who answered the survey has completed at least a bachelors degree and from those who have higher degrees (masters and doctorate), their focus is in STEM, Arts and Sciences, and Social Sciences.
