NATCHEZ — More than three-quarters of local households report reading The Natchez Democrat in print or online each week, a new survey shows.

Pulse Research, Inc., a nationally recognized independent market research firm based in Portland, Ore., conducted the survey last month. The results were just released.

The survey showed 70.1 percent of the households surveyed reported reading The Democrat’s print edition within the past week.

Of local households with Internet access, 61 percent reported visiting natchezdemocrat.com during in the same period.

Print and online editions combined, The Democrat was read by 77.3 percent of households during the past week; in the past 24 hours, 74.7 percent of households reported reading either the print edition, the online edition or both.

“That’s an amazing statistic and one in which our team takes great pride,” Publisher Kevin Cooper said. “We look at our own numbers — print circulation and online stats — and get an idea of how many people read us, but this is the most detailed survey of readership we’ve had in more than a decade.”

Cooper said since printed editions can be shared among several readers, determining the actual readership audience must be determined from such a survey.

“Having a strong readership base is key to all that we do,” Cooper said. “We consider our readers as the ‘owners’ of our newspaper and Web sites. We depend on their readership and involvement.”

Survey results were gathered through telephone calls to local residents chosen by random.

The survey sample was weighted by known age and gender statistics to ensure the results closely reflected the community’s age and gender make-up.

John Marling, president of Pulse Research Inc., said the results of the survey indicate The Democrat’s audience is much stronger than normal.

“At 74.7 percent, The Natchez Democrat is above the norm,” Marling said, referring to the combined 24-hour audience statistic. “The Natchez Democrat and natchezdemocrat.com delivers the local market.”

Other statistics of note from the survey include:

4 Females make up the majority of the readers at 54 percent, to male readers at 46 percent.

4 Readers are split almost evenly among age categories with 31.1 percent being 18 to 34 years old, 33.2 percent in the 35 to 54 bracket and 35.7 percent were 55 and older. The average age of a reader is 47.

4 The average income level of readers is $47,887 with 54.5 percent reporting income of more than $30,000 annually.