A very notable shift in age in our population toward newer players. Almost half of our region has only been active in Europeia for under one year. Europeians who have been in the region three years or more now only comprise around a third of the region, creating probably one of the youngest active citizen bases in Europeia in years. Diving a little deeper, it doesn't seem like we've lost too many older players, just that the influx of newer players are driving up the ratio of new citizens to older citizens.
One of the more evident changes in this Census over time is the trend toward younger, newer players. Just under 25% a year and a half ago and just over 25% ten months ago, the region now has about 50% of the region having joined under one year ago, a remarkable shift. We've discussed the Drew Boom that occurred last April and the takeaway was that most of the new citizen increases dwindled soon after, which is accurate. The citizenship numbers returned to pre-Drew Boom levels within a few months, but it seems like some of that attrition was in older citizens. These join date percentages show that the Drew Boom has had a lasting effect on the region in the form of a very young bloc of citizens, which has effects on many of the other questions in the region.
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Citizen Opinions
Reverting back to the mean a tiny bit, we see that forum activity is favored a little higher than it was around 10 months ago, though an emphasis on both aspects is still widely favored, with a discord activity preference receding slightly. In the political simulation versus social interaction question, there is no significant change in the importance of social interaction, but a slight retreat for the politics aspect of the region, showing that the newer players value the politics game less and less over time.
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A slight increase in concerns about advancement opportunities and pathways to leadership are noted, but were probably to be expected with such a large swing toward newer players and less experience in the region. With how many recent administrations have focused on raising up new players, I suspect this perception will rebound or maintain these high numbers. At this time last year and in September 2019, we also had the Executive Split government. I doubt these slight perception changes, especially in Pathways to Leadership, have too much to do with the re-established Presidential system, but it was something significant that changed between the Census iterations.
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Probably the most significant change in perception over time that this Census noted, most citizens now hold a very positive view about the staffing capabilities of our government ministries. When the first Census came out in September 2019, staffing shortages were seen as a very significant problem, which seemed to ease slightly around the time of the Drew Boom, but with the large influx of new players into ministries, this perception has been shored up significantly, which is very encouraging for the region.
Better mentoring or development programs within ministries.
Ease up on berating 'scandalous' behavior, and to stop creating drama where there doesn't need to be. These are often on tiny things that someone blows up out of proportion, and it's a lot to manage when you're being treated as if this weren't just a game.
There are so many things to do, at this point if you haven't found a way to participate and you want to, I don't know what to tell you
restore the CA
N/A
At least in terms of the social stuff and in terms of retention, might not be bad to explore an RP that's not as complex as Arnhelm.
one thing
More visual guides, perhaps. As a newcomer I felt overwhelmed and visual guides help with that
Promote citizenship on site
Perhaps more on site presence on NationStates
Support for Lawmaking Europeian nations
More activities
More telegrams to nations in the region about Govt and ERN perhaps?
Releasing such Google forms for enrolment
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Service in Office and Voting
Service in High Office
Largely unchanged from 10 months ago, these numbers are probably about right for the positions. A quarter of respondents have achieved high office in our region, slightly less for Legislative and Judicial branches, probably weighed down by the Judicial branch.
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Service in other Office
A slight decrease from the previous Census results, but nothing significant, likely a result of the influx of newer members. The somewhat steady hold in this number probably indicates that newcomers are reaching Ministries in satisfactory time.
Just over half the region has served as a Senator, and just under 20% have served as a Justice.
The percentage of those who have served as a Minister or Senator have slightly declined, not significantly compared to the number of new citizens in the region. Service as a Justice, however, has seen a significant decline. In September 2019, 30% of respondents had served as a Justice. The current percentage is almost half of that original number, showing that either the barriers to becoming a justice are harder or that we do not have as many people interested in the position as in previous years.
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Election Turnout
A slight increase in voter participation since April 2020. Overall a solid voting percentage -- More detailed voter participation data can be found here.
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Service in Ministries and Councils
Service in any ministry has maintained a solid position, which is excellent considering the number of new citizens in the region. However, the number of citizens in multiple ministries has declined. This would normally be cause for concern, but since the whole region sees the staffing issue as minimal, this multiple ministry service issue may not be very important at the moment.
While the Domestic ministries have seen a decline since the re-establishment of the Presidency, the Foreign ministries have seen an increase to slightly above parity with the domestic ministries. It seems the Executive Split was very beneficial for the domestic ministries, but detrimental to foreign ministries, which is being resolved now.
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stronger gameside integration
The way Senate seats sre chosen (the number of seats) may be a bit complicated and confusing if people are seeing it for the first time, but I don't think there's a better way even
N/A
I think it would be nice if senators could represent a particular set of people.
Simply make things more visible, especially gameside.
one thing
I don't know.
Longer elections since many people are in different timezones
More debates, even between Senators, more people running for President/VP than just 2 each time.
It's election-specific and logistically not always tenable, but a more standardized approach to election debates (e.g. if there will be a debate, if it will be real-time on Discord or the EBC, etc)
Give routine Google forms
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Current Events and Ideas
The Senate's Primary Role in the Region
The plurality of respondents view the Senate's role primarily as an originator of new ideas and legislation, with a strong secondarily perceived role as taking a leadership role on important discussions in the region. Executive Oversight, while it may be a part of more people's view on the Senate's overall tasks, is onlyviewed as a primary role for the Senate for around 10% of the respondents. Executive Oversight will likely continue to be discussed and adjusted over time.
I would like it if protocol were managed internally through standing orders and motions, rather than legislation
I like a mix of executive oversight and legislation ideas, but primarily focusing on legislation is what I think should be done
I think it should be much more active. 15 years old is not an excuse.
People should be assigned local senators who we can bring our concerns and legislation ideas through to.
Executive oversight needs a bit of cleaning when most of the Senators are Ministers
UNLIMITED POWER
We should abolish the Senate and bring back the Citizens' Assembly
Nope
People complain about inactivity in the Senate, which is mainly due to the fact that we don't have a lot of legislative specialists in Europeia. At some point, we should accept that the Senate won't be very active, which will persist unless the Senate expands its portfolio into other regional matters.
Set number of Senators, not based on how many are running.
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Foreign Affiliation Disclosure in Elections
With very few decidedly against disclosure of foreign affiliations, many respondents would rather have foreign affiliations disclosed voluntarily in platform threads rather than adding them to law. It shall be seen whether these disclosures are requested by voters during the next election or not.
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Arnhelm and the Citizens' Assembly
46% of respondents would prefer to keep the status quo, but there is around a quarter of the respondent citizens who would prefer to change the situation. Just over 25% would like to see a return of some form of CA-like activity, whether it is separate from Arnhelm, combined, or in replacement of Arnhelm. Very few people, less than 5% stated that they would prefer to abolish Arnhelm currently. A large swath of respondents (22%) were either undecided, neutral, or had no opinion.
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Re-establishment of the Presidency
Almost a year after the re-establishment of the Presidency, the vast majority of citizens are satisfied with the outcome of that reform, over 75%, with no respondents choosing "very dissatisfied". While there seems to be changes that could be made, given the numerous proposals during the recent Senate election, the Presidency and Re-merging of the old branches seems to be very popular.
This was the best move the region could’ve made at the time.
I left before the split and came back after, though it seems to be working well at the moment
N/A
I think the senate should have more responsibility to the people or we should have a bicameral system with like a place where people can discuss in the bottom.
I think the problems we were having were slightly worse than the problems under the first Presidential system so it made sense to swap back but at the end of the day I'm not sure we've solved any of the issues we faced over the past few years.
any comments
I’m still not convinced of the advantages of the Presidential system over the FM/CoS.
Nope
It is performing greatly
I think we need to look back on the exec split and better evaluate what we learned from it and how we can use that
I like the idea of the President and VP having defined *public* portfolios. They're a team, after all! And division of labor helps everyone.
Participation in Europeia
More games on the forum - Kharn has been giving culture a boost with the right approach of DnD and radio shows too.
No
More diverse reacts than just "like"
More debates
I really should participate in spam games but I don't
N/A
Just more discussions probably
More "last poster wins" threads
I’m not sure, it’s just that I don’t go on it.
More of Monkey's random threads in Republic Square
lists about other RP regions
Destroying Discord and refocusing more major discussions onto the forums instead. But that'll never happen.
Some important post whose link is later distributed in discord or as telegram in NS
What an incredible set of data again. Had a lot of fun nerding out talking statistics with you in eurochat
Just like to point out a few stats here; incredible increase in newcomers 3-12 months ago, probably left over Drew boom participation when quite a few people stuck. Incredible change in staffing perceptions; no doubt we're getting used to having an active and reliable newcomer base holding up our ministerial roles. And the one for me is the really interesting drop in multiple ministerial roles;
[By count]
[By percentage]
My own theory is that after ~1 year of participation in the region, you know your way around pretty much every part of its basic operation, and thus can apply yourself quite easily in whatever ministeries interest you. For the 3-12 months it's probably some newer people who are experimenting in multiple ministries and trying to find out what they enjoy, and the older generations probably have their specialities and are just fine performing those.
During discussion on discord, a question came up about serving in multiple ministries. We discussed that newcomers may not be fully comfortable jumping into multiple ministries, so I took a deeper dive at that question. The answer is yes; newcomers are the least likely to join multiple ministries, but we also see a number of older citizens (5+ years) who also tend to only focus on one ministry or less. Most of our multiple ministry members come from the 1 year to 4 year range, with 3-12 month citizens climbing up to meet them. These are the results:
Speaking for myself, this is mainly because of concerns about time commitments, and not being as curious about things since I've tried most jobs in the past.
Speaking for myself, this is mainly because of concerns about time commitments, and not being as curious about things since I've tried most jobs in the past.
I feel like a often overlooked part of the "Drew Boom" was that in those early days of the pandemic we saw a fair number of older members pop out of the woodwork and come back for a bit in the region. They did not stick around for long at all but the pandemic drove regional activity, as much if not more than the Drew Boom in my opinion given the relatively dismal returns in new members evidenced here.
Additionally, I think it's notable the 10+ year group has steadily expanded as more of our eternal members, aka the people who have been around and likely will continue to be around till whenever the end is slowly get pushed back into that category. 10 years ago means you joined in at the latest 2011, four years into the region's existence.
I feel like a often overlooked part of the "Drew Boom" was that in those early days of the pandemic we saw a fair number of older members pop out of the woodwork and come back for a bit in the region. They did not stick around for long at all but the pandemic drove regional activity, as much if not more than the Drew Boom in my opinion given the relatively dismal returns in new members evidenced here.
Additionally, I think it's notable the 10+ year group has steadily expanded as more of our eternal members, aka the people who have been around and likely will continue to be around till whenever the end is slowly get pushed back into that category. 10 years ago means you joined in at the latest 2011, four years into the region's existence.
Yeah, I think I could get on board with that theory. We have seen a lasting increase in voter turnout since the beginning of the pandemic.
But yes, I think it's clear at this point that the Drew Boom nations were not a goldmine for lasting activity, but they did perhaps rouse some members to become more active.
This was all very good and informative! I am curious what we'd gain - or what we're losing - by integrating more Google forms into our everyday government (those comments stood out to me).
This is great Prim, there's so much here! I think the comments about greater gameside presence are interesting, and would be especially so if they came from the few respondents who seem to be more RMB-focused, or those who initially were RMB-focused before joining the forum.
As probably the biggest proponent of executive modernization at the time, and firmly convinced it would be good for the region, I’m glad that we have overwhelming support for it nearly a year after we started that debate.
We always have ways and places we can improve, and know we will continue to do just that.
That aside, great work on this, with good insights into where we are as a region today. This is important work.
