There was a post on !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world called "Lemmy is losing the war against reddit. How do we change things?" Looks like it was removed but there were a couple good discussions there. In a discussion with (I think it was) @hendrik@palaver.p3x.de we came up with this.
Lemmy users are normal people. However, only compared to other white males in their late twenties to mid thirties working in the tech industry. At least that's what a survey on the German instance showed. Depending on your instance, the main variables are probably country of origin, sexual orientation and whether or not you're still male - but statistically, that's what you've been born as.
Compared to the general population, we're probably more tech savvy, have higher education and therefore more money (mileage depends once again on you country of origin), are more left-leaning and we count way more furries among us.
I wonder if anyone's ever tried a general survey. Add an "instance" option as well, for seeing trends on specific instances. Could make it a "select one of the already other-users-made option or add your own" type of survey. Idk. Could be interesting, assuming no trolls messing with the poll