Who Engages in Citizen Science Projects on Urban Wildlife Ecology? Findings on Participant Groups from Cluster Analyses

Citizen science (CS) has grown in recent years in terms of popularity, project numbers, and content. Yet, even though there is previous research on the demographics of participants in CS projects, it is unclear whether participants can be reasonably classified into specific groups based on their demographics. Such knowledge could help engage, retain, and attract CS participants in the future. Therefore, the research presented here identified distinctive participant groups in two different ecological CS projects (N₁ = 847, N₂ = 223) by means of cluster analyses based on participants’ demographics (i.e., age, gender, educational background, status of employment). The results revealed four similar clusters across both projects: (1) Academic Employees who were middle-aged employees with a high education level and full-time or part-time employment, (2) All-Round Workers who were middle-aged employees with a medium education level and full-time or part-time employment, (3) Academic Free-Timers with a high education level and no employment, and (4) Free-Timers with a medium education level and no employment. Further analyses revealed that all four clusters engaged roughly similarly in the data collection phase of both CS projects. In the data analysis phase, the Academic Free-Timers were more engaged than the other clusters, or at least visited the platform, whereas the All-Round Workers and Free-Timers were less active in one of the projects. Thus, this research reveals that person-centered approaches provide alternative descriptions of CS participants and their engagement in CS projects.