Demographics, polls, and surveys can provide helpful information about your audience, such as their values, income, spending habits, and political views. This information can help guide your speech or essay writing but be careful not to stereotype based on the information you find. Government sites, professional organizations, and private data firms often provide the results of their research for free. A few selected resources are provided below, but ultimately your audience might require searching beyond the provided links.
General Statistics
Crime Issues
Economics, Labor & Employment Issues
Energy & Environment Issues
Health Issues
Education Issues
Family Issues
Opinion Polls
Technology, Communication, & Behavior
Time Use
Transportation Issues
Business marketers are often looking for the same types of information as speech writers. After all, an advertisement or branding is how a company gets its audience to buy in to the product or service the business is selling.