No, the record of Agora Budapest 2012 was not in danger. But the number of 1251 applicants for the autumn Agora in Zaragoza (ZarAgora) was at least the second highest in the past five years. This is mainly due to the big number of applicants from Spain: 220 AEGEE members – that’s 17.6 percent of all applicants – of the country where the Agora takes place want to visit the statutory meeting, which begins on 30th of October. The chair team, which will select the participants this weekend, will have a hard time to decide about the places, since only 800 people can be accepted. 451 won’t be able to come. The results will be published by latest next Tuesday, maybe even before.

Zaragora Stats Countries
Countries of origin for ZarAgora: Spain dominates

As usual, half of all people applied only in the last four days. Until 31st of August, only 646 AEGEE members had pushed the application button. Main Agora organizer Chema Rueda was watching full of excitement how the number increased sharply hour by hour in the last four days. Nevertheless, only 800 people can come, which is quite common. Only very few antennae managed to host more than 800 people at their Agora. Until today, only one single of the 54 Agoras in the history of AEGEE had more than 1000 participants: Agora Maastricht in 1998, with altogether 1150 participants.

Zaragora Stats Total
Long term comparison of the number of applicants: ZarAgora very popular

The statistics tell us more about Agora Zaragoza and the state of AEGEE:

  • 675 applicants (54.0 percent) have never visited any Agora before. This is one of the highest numbers in recent years. Only 8.5 percent have been to four or more Agoras. That’s doesn’t sound much, but it’s 108 applicants in total.
  • The country with most applicants is Spain (17.6 percent,) followed with quite some distance by Italy (11.8), Germany (9.2) and Poland (8.4 percent). A little surprise on the next place: Greece (6.7 percent) had one applicant more than Netherlands. Thus more than 35 percent of all applicants are originating from three Southern Europe countries Spain, Italy and Greece.
Zaragora Stats Countries Longterm
Countries of origin since 2010: Greece overtakes the Netherlands

 

  • 55.1 percent of applicants are female. That’s a pretty accurate reflection of the gender distribution in AEGEE. Traditionally there are more girls than boys in the association.
  • 52 percent of applicants were born between 1989 and 1992. So, the average participant is 22-23 years old.
  • 41 percent are board members of their local antenna. Exactly 10 percent are board members of a working group, an AEGEE contact or active in a project. 49 percent don’t have any of these tasks yet or anymore.
  • 10,1 percent are vegetarians – the highest percentage ever!