About YouTube Creator Demographics

The Creator & Artist Survey, opened in March 2021, is completely voluntary for U.S.-based artists’ and creators’ YouTube channels.

The survey can now be found under Creator Demographics in the YouTube Studio Settingssection. Currently, only U.S.-based channel owners can use this setting. Note: If you participated in the survey in the past, your responses have been transferred over to this Studio section.

You can also find Creator Demographics in the settings section of the YouTube Studio mobile app.

The data provided in Creator Demographics gives us a greater understanding of the artists and creators that use YouTube. If they choose to, creators and artists can provide us with their:

Gender identity
Race & ethnicity
Sexual orientation

This info about YouTube channels helps us make sure our systems don’t reflect unintentional bias.

We want to ensure YouTube is inclusive and works for everyone. Today, the evaluation process of our systems is limited because we don’t have identity information about the channels on YouTube. We don’t have a way to evaluate, at scale, how our products and policies are working for channels of creator and artist communities of a particular race & ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Note: We know that identity is personal; sharing this information is optional. This setting provides us with identity data that we don't otherwise know about creators’ and artists’ channels on YouTube. Your survey response information will be stored with your YouTube channel and will not be used by other Google products. The information you give will not be used to impact an individual video’s or channel's performance in YouTube's systems.

Calling All U.S. Creators: Important New Survey

How we’ll use Creator Demographics data

We’ll use the data collected to evaluate how YouTube works for the channels of creators and artists who represent different communities. We’ll use the data provided to:

Examine how our algorithms and systems treat content from various communities
Understand how various communities are growing on YouTube
Identify potential patterns of abuse, including harassment and hate
Improve our current programs, campaigns, and offerings

If we find issues in our systems that impact specific communities, we’re committed to working to fix them. We’ll continue to share our progress on these ongoing efforts with you.

Should you choose to provide your information in Creator Demographics, Google LLC will keep your information in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy. The information you provide will be stored with your YouTube channel and will not be used by other Google products. It will not be made public without your additional consent, or used for advertising purposes.

Here are more details on how we’ll use the data provided:

Examine how our algorithms and systems treat content from various communities

This data will help us understand how our systems treat content from different communities.

Our goal is to better identify potential issues in our automated systems. We also want to address errors that we might find to help make sure that the systems are inclusive.

Understand how various communities are growing on YouTube

This data will also be used to help us understand how different creator communities are growing on YouTube.

One example of how we’ll evaluate growth is to examine how different communities are monetizing on YouTube. We’ve heard feedback from creators and artists about cases where our monetization systems don’t work as expected. In addition to addressing these concerns, we’ll be more proactive in making sure our systems and policies are working well for all creators and types of content.

Identify potential harmful patterns of behavior, including harassment and hate

If content violates our hate and harassment policies, we remove it. But, we’ve heard feedback that many creators are still affected by offensive and hurtful content and comment behavior. This data will proactively help us understand how various creator communities might be affected by this type of behavior. It will also improve our automated systems over time.

Improve our current programs, campaigns, and offerings

Under Creator Demographics, you can provide consent for us to use your information to extend invites to programs and events. This information may help us better understand our current programs, campaigns, and offerings. These offerings include programs like creator events and programs to help emerging creators grow. We also conduct research with creators like focus groups, in-person feedback sessions, surveys, and other types of research. Through this work, we can bring creators’ points of view to our product development teams. The information from Creator Demographics will allow us to extend research invitations to more creators that reflect the diversity of communities on YouTube.

Option to edit or delete your response info

Read below for instructions on how to delete your response info. You can edit the information you provided about your gender identity, race & ethnicity, and sexual orientation once within a 45-day period. The next possible date you can resubmit your response information will show in Studio. It’s always possible to delete your responses entirely.

Note: If you choose to edit or delete this info, it won’t affect the performance of your content on YouTube.

Edit Creator Demographics responses:

Sign in to YouTube on a computer or use the YouTube Studio app with your channel owner account.
Go to YouTube Studio Settings and select Creator Demographics.
- In the YouTube Studio app, find Creator Demographics by tapping your profile picture and tapping Settings .
Select EDIT SURVEY.
Edit your responses.
Select SUBMIT.

Delete Creator Demographics responses:

Sign in to YouTube on a computer or use the YouTube Studio app with your channel owner account.
Go to YouTube Studio Settings and select Creator Demographics.
- In the YouTube Studio app, find Creator Demographics by tapping your profile picture and tapping Settings .
Select DELETE DATA.
Select DELETE when the confirmation window pops up.

Download Creator Demographics responses:

To download your Creator demographics data, follow these instructions. Note that to download data for the YouTube channel(s) you own, you need to be logged in with your personal Google Account, not a Brand Account.

Learn more about Creator Demographics

When can I use this setting?

We started rolling out the Creator & Artist Survey to creators and artists based in the U.S. on March 29, 2021. As of October 1, 2021, these questions can now be found under Creator Demographics in your YouTube Studio Settings section on a computer.

Note that you must be a channel owner to access this setting. If you’re using a Brand Account, you have to be the Primary Owner. If you’re using YouTube channel permissions, you have to be the Owner.

When will you expand this setting to other countries/regions and more identities?

We’re starting with US-based creators and artists and may make the setting available to more countries/regions over time. We know that the categories and choices in the survey don’t reflect all the ways in which individuals around the world may define their identities. We’re looking to expand these categories and choices in the future.

This setting is in addition to other efforts that already exist to help us improve the experience for all creators and viewers. For example, YouTube continues to work with viewers and creators with disabilities to improve the platform’s accessibility and to help ensure everyone has an inclusive experience on YouTube.

Do I have to answer every question in Creator Demographics?

No, if you choose to fill out Creator Demographics, each question is optional. You can leave certain questions blank or select “Prefer not to answer.”

Will this setting impact how my channel performs?

The information you provide will not be used to impact an individual content’s performance in YouTube's systems.

We want to ensure our systems do not reflect unintentional bias. The data from Creator Demographics will be used to evaluate parts of YouTube such as our Search, Discovery, and Monetization systems. If we do find errors that affect certain communities, we’ll focus on improving the training of our systems to make them more accurate and inclusive.

How did you create the Creator Demographics questionnaire?

We worked closely with civil and human rights experts, and creators who represent different communities.

Will my responses be shared outside of YouTube?

The information you share in the Creator & Artist Survey or the Creator Demographics setting will be stored with your YouTube channel and will not be used by other Google products. It will not be made public without your additional consent, and it won’t be used for advertising purposes. We won’t give this information to advertisers or use it for ads targeting.

You can choose whether to give consent for us to use your information to extend invites to programs and events. This can include having your channel or content highlighted; or workshops, user research, or other campaigns.

Can I update/edit my info after it has been submitted?

You can edit your Creator Demographics responses once within a 45-day period. The next possible date you can resubmit your response information will show in Studio. It’s always possible to delete your responses entirely.

Edit Creator Demographics responses:

Sign in to YouTube on a computer or use the YouTube Studio app with your channel owner account.
Go to YouTube Studio Settings and select Creator Demographics.
- In the YouTube Studio app, find Creator Demographics by tapping your profile picture and tapping Settings .
Select EDIT SURVEY.
Edit your responses.
Select SUBMIT.

Delete Creator Demographics responses:

Sign in to YouTube on a computer or use the YouTube Studio app with your channel owner account.
Go to YouTube Studio Settings and select Creator Demographics.
- In the YouTube Studio app, find Creator Demographics by tapping your profile picture and tapping Settings .
Select DELETE DATA.
Select DELETE when the confirmation window pops up.

Download Creator Demographics responses:

Does this change any info about my Google account?

The information you share in the Creator & Artist Survey or the Creator Demographics setting will be stored with your YouTube channel. It will not be used by other Google products.

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