The Community
NoFap® wouldn’t be where it is today without the thousands of Fapstronauts who log in to motivate each other every single day. Though typecast as a homogenous group of young American males, the strength of our community lies in accepting all who come for support, no matter their backgrounds, identities, or beliefs. We value the perspectives of all our members. When all people feel welcome, we can help the most people possible.
Here’s a snapshot of our amazing community from our most recent poll (April 2012):
Race, Ethnicity, and Residency
Our largest segment of users, 72 percent, identified themselves as Caucasian. This was followed by Asian (six percent); Hispanic (four percent); Indian (three percent); and Black, Middle Eastern, and Non-Caucasian European each at two percent. A few respondents identified as Native American. Five percent identified with “no predominant ethnicity (mixed race)” and another five percent as “Other.”
Fifty-one percent of our users reported to be from the United States. Of those, 22 percent hail from the Midwest, 26 percent from the Northeast, 32 percent from the West, and 22 percent from the South. Six U.S. respondents came from outside the contiguous United States.
Nine percent of all respondents were from Canada. Another one percent hailed from the rest of North America, with still another one percent reporting from South America.
Western Europeans constituted 21 percent of all respondents, and Eastern Europe another four percent.
Australians made up five percent of users.
All regions of Asia were represented among our users, but only the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia were represented by at least one percent of all users, apiece.
We had seven respondents from Africa.
We even had one respondent claim to be reporting in from Antarctica!
Gender and Sexual Orientation
Our community is largely composed of straight men, but we welcome people of all genders and sexual orientations.
Ninety-seven percent of the community is male, while three percent are women. These statistics include individuals who explicitly identified themselves as transgender, though very few did.
Ninety-one percent of the community identified as straight men and two percent as straight women. One percent identified as gay men, and three percent as bisexual. Three percent questioned their sexual orientation, while a few individuals identified as asexual. One percent of us identified with some other sexual orientation not listed.
Sexual Activity, Relationship Status, and Family
Forty-four percent of users reported themselves as virgins. Twenty percent reported no sexual activity in the previous six months, while another ten percent reported regularly having sex less than once a month. The remaining 26 percent had sex more frequently.
Twenty-six percent of our community reported that they are currently in a relationship, including the five percent of users who are married. A majority of those in a relationship, 60 percent, have been in their current relationship for over a year.
Only three percent of respondents reported having children, but most of our users look forward to some day being parents. When asked “if it turns out you never have any children, how would you react?” 66 percent of users said they would be greatly, somewhat, or a little bothered. Fifteen percent replied they’d have neutral feelings about it, while five percent said they would feel relieved and/or happy.
Religion and Religious Attendance
While NoFap is a secular website, we encourage our users to practice spirituality to quit porn if they find it helpful. We recognize that we will help the most people by turning no one away based on their religious faith or lack thereof.
Forty-two percent of the community identified as atheists and another 20 percent as agnostic or apathetic towards religion. Fifteen percent of the community identified as Protestant, seven percent as Catholic, three percent as Muslim, two percent as Buddhist, and another one percent each as Hindu, Jewish, and New Age. Some individuals identified as Pagan or with some other affiliation.
Fifty-two percent of users reported they never attend religious services, and another eight percent attend less than once a year. Ten percent attend services once or twice a year, four percent more frequently but less than once a month, and another four percent attend one to three times a month. Eleven percent of users attend services weekly, and six percent attend more than once a week.
Educational Attainment, Employment, and Income
High school graduation was the highest educational attainment of 24 percent of our respondents, while 30 percent had some college and another 32 percent had earned a Bachelor’s or Associate’s degree. Six percent had earned a Master’s degree, and two percent had earned a Doctorate or other terminal professional degree. Two percent had not yet graduated high school.
Per the survey, 56 percent of our community are students. Another 25 percent are employed. Four percent are self-employed, with another eight percent out of work. One percent said they were unable to work, and a few respondents said they were either retired or working as homemakers.
Twenty-five percent of the community reported an annual household income of less than $25,000, while 22 percent reported an annual household income of over $75,000, with the majority falling somewhere in between.
Political Affiliation
As for political affiliation, the largest single segment of our users, 26 percent, reported having no political engagement. A combined twenty-nine percent labeled themselves as either leaning or staunchly progressive/liberal while a combined nine percent labeled themselves as either leaning or staunchly conservative. Twenty-three percent labeled themselves libertarian; fourteen percent as progressive-leaning libertarians and nine percent as conservative-leaning libertarians. Four percent of users considered themselves to be “swing voters.”
Views on Masturbation, Internet Pornography, and Addiction
Largely speaking, our users do not frown upon masturbation. Twenty-five percent thought masturbation was “Unhealthy for some people, healthy/good/fun for others”, another 22 percent thought it was healthy for most people and 17 percent thought it was healthy for everyone. Seven percent thought masturbation was unhealthy for most people and ten percent thought it was unhealthy for everyone.
Our users generally have a more negative view in regards to Internet pornography. Twenty percent said it was “Unhealthy for some people, healthy/good/fun for others,” while a combined ten percent thought it was mostly healthy or healthy for everyone. Twenty-one percent thought it was unhealthy for most people, while the largest proportion, 40 percent, regarded it as unhealthy for everyone.
A majority of our members, 60 percent, considered themselves addicted to pornography and/or masturbation. Thirty percent thought such addiction exists but didn’t consider themselves addicted. One percent said there’s no such thing as pornography/masturbation addiction.
Improvement Through Rebooting
Differences aside, the common element that brings the community together is hope. Users of all walks of life are seeing real progress and are making strides towards recovering from the effects of heavy porn use.
Our survey asked all users to report improvement. Some had completed their reboot while others had only just begun. Regardless, we still saw tremendous overall improvement. Of those surveyed who had reported sexual dysfunction prior to rebooting and who subsequently had sexual contact after beginning their reboot, 46 percent saw a clear improvement in their dysfunction and another 14 percent reported their dysfunction had been eliminated!
Users who had at least begun their reboot began to feel the intangible benefits of removing porn from their lives. Fifty-three reported a rise in energy and motivation, 52 percent experienced a boost in self-confidence, half reported an increase in productivity and free time, 39 percent perceived an improvement in their social skills, and 46 percent reported an increase in the knowledge of their own strengths and limitations.
As astounding as these results are, we encourage users to attempt longer reboot periods in order to have an even better chance at experiencing positive results. While most rebooters begin to see some effects early on, we’ve found that many who had engaged in very heavy porn use only see the full effects of rebooting after an extended reboot period of up to a year, or even longer.
Since this survey included results from everyone in the community regardless of how long they had been rebooting, and since we now have several members of the community who have undertaken long reboots, we look forward to more current surveys providing data revealing better results overall, and the positive effects of longer rebooting periods.
Summary
The community on NoFap® skews young, male, secular, liberal and American. But this does not describe all our members. It doesn’t even describe everyone in our leadership team! We intend to exclude no one. We welcome everyone and value hearing from people whose diverse backgrounds lend them a unique perspective.
Furthermore, we encourage everyone to participate in our community, not just users recovering from porn addiction. NoFap® is a safe haven for friends, family, and partners of rebooters who otherwise have few places to find support when their lives have been impacted by pornography and porn addiction.