Demographics of Mechanical Turk

Abstract

We present the results of a survey that collected information about the\ndemographics of participants on Amazon Mechanical Turk, together with\ninformation about their level of activity and motivation for working on\nAmazon Mechanical Turk. We find that approximately 50% of the workers\ncome from the United States and 40% come from India. Country of origin\ntends to change the motivating reasons for workers to participate in the\nmarketplace. Significantly more workers from India participate on\nMechanical Turk because the online marketplace is a primary source of\nincome, while in the US most workers consider Mechanical Turk a\nsecondary source of income. While money is a primary motivating reason\nfor workers to participate in the marketplace, workers also cite a\nvariety of other motivating reasons, including entertainment and education.