Where are Prolific’s participants from?
Prolific participants come from a range of countries around the world. Most participants live in OECD member countries, with a few exceptions.
If someone is not originally from a supported country, they can still participant on Prolific as long as they currently live in a supported country.
The full list of supported countries is provided below:
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA
BELGIUM
BRAZIL
CANADA
CHILE
CROATIA
CZECH REPUBLIC
DENMARK
ESTONIA
FINLAND
FRANCE
GERMANY
GREECE
HONG KONG
HUNGARY
ICELAND
IRELAND
ISRAEL
ITALY
JAPAN
KOREA
LATVIA
LUXEMBOURG
MEXICO
NETHERLANDS
NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY
POLAND
PORTUGAL
SINGAPORE
SLOVAKIA
SLOVENIA
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
TAIWAN
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
In addition, we have small participant populations in the following countries:
ALGERIA
ARGENTINA
BULGARIA
COLOMBIA
EGYPT
INDIA
INDONESIA
KAZAKHSTAN
KENYA
MALAWI
MALAYSIA
MOROCCO
PHILIPPINES
ROMANIA
SAUDI ARABIA
VIETNAM
How old are Prolific's participants?
All participants on Prolific are at least 18 years old.
You can’t run studies on Prolific with children as participants, even with parental consent. You’re welcome to run studies with parents as your target demographic, but their children can’t be involved.
Inviting participants to Prolific
Our ‘bring your own participants’ feature is available for some researchers. This lets you invite participants to Prolific to take part in your studies. You can find out more here: Bring your own participants.
How do participants hear about Prolific?
Participants are primarily recruited to Prolific through word of mouth, including recommendations shared on social media. We also recruit participants through targeted outreach and partnerships. Researchers can also invite participants to join Prolific directly, as mentioned in the section above.
When Prolific was founded in 2014, participants were recruited through three main channels:
Social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and various online forums).
Flyer distribution on university campuses.
The Prolific referral scheme (ceased March 2019), which allowed participants to invite people in their network to join Prolific in return for small cash incentives.
Today, participant recruitment primarily occurs through organic word of mouth, social media sharing, and outreach initiatives.
To explore our active participant pool, take a look at our audience checker tool.