Cloth Diaper User Demographics
After years of thinking about a cloth diaper user demographics survey, I finally did it. I received just over 2,200 responses to my cloth diaper survey. I would have loved to receive more but I’ll take it! Here’s what I found out.
Respondent age
The majority of respondents were between the ages of 25 and 35.
Marital status
Most are married.
Living situation
Most own their home.
Employment
There are a good variety of work situations among cloth diapering families.
Income
As well as income.
Have you ever purchased a diaper to “collect” (kept it new and didn’t use it)?
Interestingly, many people stated that they have not “collected” a diaper (bought it and kept it new in the package rather than using it).
Have you ever purchased a diaper to sell at a profit?
Despite what it may seem watching B/S/T groups and limited releases, most say they have not purchased a diaper for the purpose of reselling it at a profit.
Do you pay attention to where diapers are made?
Most prefer to know that their diapers were made ethically, or that they are made in the USA/Canada. Note: the reason for the small # of “Made in the USA” responses is that I initially had the question reading that way vs. US/Canada and changed it after a few responses were received.
How often do you use cloth diapers?
Most commonly, families use disposables at night if they don’t use cloth full time.
How long have you been cloth diapering?
How many children have you cloth diapered?
Many of the respondents aren’t necessarily veteran cloth diaper users, though I imagine there is some selection bias in this survey.
How old was your child when you first started cloth diapering?
Families seem to be getting started with cloth diapers right away, when their baby is in newborn cloth diapers, or shortly after.
How/where did you first learn of cloth diapering?
Friends and family seem to be the most likely way for someone to learn about cloth diapers.
What influenced your decision to cloth diaper?
That said, online resources play a large role in deciding whether or not to use cloth diapers.
Why do you cloth diaper?
I allowed respondents to choose more than one reason for cloth diapering, since families typically have more than one. Saving money is in the lead by just a bit.
One a scale of 1-5, how would you categorize your parenting style/lifestyle?
The overwhelming majority say they consider their parenting style “middle of the road” or a bit closer to “natural.” When talking about cloth diapers (or marketing them), remember that not every cloth diaper user is “crunchy.”
What kind of cloth diapers do you use?
From what I have seen, the most popular types of cloth diapers really seem to change every few years. I wonder what the results of this question would have been a few years ago.
What do you use at night time?
Though quite a few families use disposables at night, many families make overnight cloth diapers work.
On a scale of 1-5, how much do you prefer natural fiber/organic fabrics vs synthetic/stay dry diapers?
Most people who took the survey like a mix of stay dry and natural fiber diapers.
How many cloth diapers do you own?
Stash size varies, but not many families have fewer than 10 or more than 100 diapers.
Approximately how much money have you spent on cloth diapers & accessories?
There is a wide range for what families have spent on diapers as well.
What is the most you’d consider paying for one diaper?
$15-$25 seems to be the most money many families would pay for one diaper.
Where were the majority of your diapers purchased?
Most survey respondents seem to buy cloth diapers online.
Where do you wash your diapers?
They’re washing cloth diapers in their homes.
What detergent do you use on your cloth diapers?
Most families are using mainstream detergent vs. specialty cloth diaper detergent.
Do you use the same detergent on your clothes?
More people are using the same detergent on diapers and clothing, than people who use something special.
What was your biggest hurdle in beginning or continuing to cloth diaper?
There are definitely hurdles to cloth diapering, but no one issue jumped out as being the biggest.
Do you use any of these accessories?
Diaper sprayers, splatter shields, and disposable cloth diaper liners can be helpful but plenty of families have success without them.
What surprised you about the survey results? What did you find most interesting?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
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Hello, I read your article well.
Can I get the above data in PDF?
I love this data and how you have it broken down. By any chance, did you collect data around the ethnic groups? I’m curious to see how many Black parents there were. Also, have you updated this recently? If so, may you please link me? Last, how did you gather this data? I would love to pull some data like this together.
I love this information and how you have it broken down. By any chance, did you collect data around the ethnic groups? I’m curious to see how many Black parents there were. Also, have you updated this recently? If so, may you please link me? Last, how did you gather this data? I would love to pull some data like this together.
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Thank you for this snap shot. I wonder how things have changed since then. Do you plan on replicating this survey 2 yrs down the line.
I would love to! I know I struggled to receive this many responses the first time, so I’m not sure how much interest there would be in participating in another survey.
Fantastic survey Maria!!
Thank you very much for taking the time to put this together and sharing it- much appreciated.
This is very interesting and well done! Thank you, Maria for putting this information together.
Awesome survey. Best I have ever seen. Only thing I question is how representative of the overall cloth diapering user world it is with respect to where they purchase their product. Because it is an online survey and because the respondents were largely from the engaged online cloth diapering community this survey would miss folks that purchase through big box stores and large non boutique type retailers. For the boutique type online retailer this survey is very representative of their customers.
I completely agree with you, Dennis. Perhaps for the next survey, B&M boutique owners would be willing to mention the survey to their in-store customers.