Nearing, Ryam. Polyamory Demography -- the “Loving More Magazine” Study (2000)

“In 2000, Ryam Nearing, owner of Loving More Magazine, commissioned a survey of about 1000 polyamorists. The data from this study were unavailable for several years. This information is now part of the Kenneth R. Haslam M.D. Polyamory Collection and is available from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Surveys were sent out asking 52 questions on polyamory relationships and sexual health, asking in part about gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, household makeup, marital history, discrimination and violence, children in polyamory relationships, discovery of polyamory, religion and spirituality, education, "outness," income, employment, marital status, geographic location, jealousy, and especially interesting, comments on polyamory from all of the participants.

Partial and preliminary analyses of the data have been published in Loving More Magazine: Pallotta-Chiarolli (2002) "Polyparents" #31 pp. 8-13 Fall 2002; Weber (2002) "Survey Results - Who Are We?" #30 Summer 2002 pp. 4-6.

Since polyamory demographics are almost nonexistant, and as the polyamory community grows and enters the mainstream, the investigators wish this study to be made available to the academic and legal communities for scholarly analysis and presentation in peer reviewed journals” (Nearing and Haslam, 2007).

Polyamory Study Documentation (1.5 MB)

Marginals (1 MB)

Except for the open-ended comments (Q.51 "Respondent Comments"), the data-set is not directly available to external researchers. Qualified scholars and researchers may request a copy of the open-ended subject comments (only), and may submit requests for computer-run analyses for the rest of the data-set. Requests must list specific variables and their exact manipulation. The data are in SPSS data file format, and the SPSS “data dictionary” is available above for free download, along with tables and other information useful to the selection and analysis of variables. For ease and speed, we usually program in SPSS. Clients may provide their own prepared SPSS jobs in order to maintain control over programming, to reduce costs and to shorten turnaround time. Output can be supplied to the client on paper, disk, or via electronic network. Programming and computer-consulting time is billed to the researcher.

For more information, terms, and conditions, please contact Thomas G. Albright, the Computer Analyst at The Kinsey Institute at: albrigh@indiana.edu.