Whitehead Comm Polls: Kampala Holiday Survey Results

In January of 2018, the Whitehead Communications team set out on a mission to learn more about Kampala residents. We asked 20 questions to 491 people in Kampala about what they did over the recent holidays. We also asked personal questions, first to determine demographic profiles for analysis – like age, gender, marital status, religion and how much money they make per month. We sprinkled in a few other questions too – like: if you had sex over the holidays – just because we thought it might be interesting, and it was!

Intern pollsters Joshan and Key in the field

Intern pollster Simon collecting responses in the field

This was the first time that the Whitehead Comm team conducted a survey to this scale – and we did it for the purpose of learning and building our capacity – so please do not consider this data as authoritative. I will release another article full of what we learned and how such a survey could be improved. However, the following results may serve useful to Ugandan marketers, analysts and strategists to illustrate trends and preferences in the Kampala market, so I welcome you to consider and share the results (please compensate us in due credit).
 
The following results should provide a fairly representative sample of Central, Urban Ugandans. Given a Kampala (night) population of approximately two million people and a Wakiso District population of about the same, a sample of 491 respondents leaves a margin error of less than 5% with a confidence level of 95% (according to this tool on Survey Monkey). This survey was conducted in person at the Old Taxi Park, Owino Market, Kamwokya, Kabalagala, Ntinda and various other areas around Kampala, with the polling field team gathering just over half of all responses. The other half of responses were collected online using Survey Monkey and shared through Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook. The field team was directed to interview older, less "elite" and more female respondents when online results trended younger, higher income and male. Our final tally was 50.61% female respondents, which is close to Uganda’s reported gender distribution as indicated by Uganda's Bureau of Statistics. Only respondents aged 18+ and residing within the areas of Kampala or Wakiso were included, with the majority residing in Kampala.
 
The following are the Kampala Holiday Survey overall results. Things get more interesting when you start filtering answers through each other to find out, for example, the responses of a particular age group or gender, or the profiles of people who drink a certain beverage, etc., but I will share some of these insights in further articles.

Survey Results
 
Gender: 49.39% male and 50.61% female.

Note: No one in Kampala took us up on selecting "other" as a gender, but one respondent skipped the question.

Age: 18-24 = 21.75%, 25-29 = 35.98%, 30-34 = 19.72%, 35-39 = 10.37%, 40-44 = 8.13%, 45-50 = 3.05%, 50+ = 1.02%​

Income: under 100,000 UGX = 18.09%; 101,000-500,000 UGX = 36.79%; 501,000-2,000,000 UGX = 25.81%; 2,001,000-5,000,000 UGX = 10.16%; 5,000,000 UGX+ = 9.15%.

Note: This income question may be flawed due to heavy responder bias and the nature of the informal economy, which we'll break down further in another post.
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Marital status: In a relationship = 18.7%; Single = 38.21%; Married = 30.89%; Separated/Divorced = 5.49%; It's complicated = 6.71%.

Note: some respondents requested the addition of "widower," which was not included in possible responses and is not reflected in these results.

Religion: Christian = 72.97%; Muslim = 15.04%; Hindu = 0.61%; Other religion = 5.69%; Not religious = 5.69%.

Note: some respondents who were Seventh Day Adventist self-identified as "other religion" and not Christian.

50.81% of Kampala residents travelled over the 2017 Christmas Holiday period, while 49.59% did not.​

Of those who travelled over the holidays, their means of transport included: Taxi/Matatu = 31.25%; Bus = 25.25%; Boda boda = 26.5%; Private car = 35.5%; Special hire/Uber/Taxify/Etc. = 6%; Air travel = 6.25%; Boat = 2.25%; Other = 17.25%.

Now here is a good one for marketers:

Where did Kampala residents get their information from? TV = 60%; Newspaper = 32.5%; Radio = 38.4%; Facebook = 50.4%; Whatsapp = 57.7%; Google/Search engine = 27.4%; Twitter = 26.8%; Instagram = 22%; Snapchat = 7.9%; SMS/Text messaging = 44.9%; Word of mouth = 55.9%; Other (mostly phone calls, which was not included in possible responses) = 13.9%.

What did Kampala residents do on Christmas Day? Family gathering = 61.2%; Church/worship = 44.3%; Visited friends = 27%; Out to a bar/club = 15.9%; Shopping = 15%; Other = 14.4%.

What did Kampala residents do on New Year's Eve? Church/worship = 36.2%; Went out to a bar/club = 21.3%; Went to see fireworks = 26.8%; House party = 13%; Did not celebrate = 23.4%; Other = 11.8%.

Which events did Kampala residents go to throughout the December 2017 holiday season?

The most popular of our December 2017 events selections were:
​None = 55.1%, Wizkid concert = 7.5%; Abryanz Style and Fashion Awards = 6.1%; Blankets and Wine = 6.1%; Pearl of Africa Fashion Awards = 4.5%; Boxing Day at One Love Beach = 4.1%.

Note: These responses cannot be relied on to judge the attendance of December's events due to the survey's limited event options and sample size, but it still proves interesting when analyzing the profiles of attendees.

​What beverages were Kampala residents drinking? Tea/coffee = 78.3%; Water/juice = 88.4%; Soda = 66.5%; Nile Special = 10%; Club = 9.8%; Bell = 5.1%; Guinness =9.6%; Tusker = 11.4%; Castle Lite = 5.7%; Wine = 30.7%; Cocktails = 17.5%; Uganda Waragi = 16.7%; Other gin = 5.3%; Vodka = 9.1%; Johnny Walker = 6.3%; Bond 7 = 3.3%; Other whiskeys = 5.5%; Rum = 2.6%; Sherry = 2.6%; Brandy = 1.4%; Congac = 2%; Other = 16% (many "other" brands were alcohols sold in sachets, as well as energy drinks).

Note: how can only 88.4% of respondents drink water? Such are the limitations of survey responses.

​Where did Kampala residents do their Christmas shopping? Supermarket in Kampala = 58.1%; Market in Kampala = 54.1%; Supermarket in "the village" = 14.6%; Market in "the village" = 20.1%; Roadside merchant = 31.7%; Mall = 22.4%; Other = 9.1%.

Whom did Kampala residents buy a gift for? No one = 37.8%; Spouse/romantic partner = 28.9%; Child/children = 29.7%; Colleague(s) = 8.3%; Friend(s) = 17.3%; Other = 16.5%.

How much did Kampala residents spend on gifts? Less than 50,000 UGX = 16.3%; 50,000-99,000 UGX = 16.9%; 100,000-499,000 UGX = 22.6%; 500,000-1,999,000 UGX = 6.5%; 2,000,000+ UGX = 4.1%; Nothing = 33.7%.

19.4% of Kampala residents had a fight or argument over the holidays. 80.6% did not.

51.1% of Kampala residents had sex over the holidays. 48.9% did not.

79.4% of Kampala residents prayed over the holidays. 20.6% did not.

Overall, how was the December 2017  holiday season for people in Kampala? Great = 38.9%; Good = 37.7%; Fair = 17.7%; Not so good = 4.5%; Terrible = 1.2%.

In my next posts, we'll go deeper into mining these results for insights and review the lessons learned from conducting this survey in Kampala, Uganda. This information is being released free to use by the public, though we request that you not do so without crediting Whitehead Communications. Our polling team is gearing up for more surveys, so if you are looking for an objective and reliable young firm to do such research, contact us at [email protected]

​What do you think of these results? Please leave us a comment and share!
​#KampalaHolidaySurvey #WhiteheadCommPolls