Each year, Technorati conducts a survey of bloggers and uses the data collected to create an annual state of the blogosphere report.  This week, the 2010 State of the Blogosphere has been released (the first three parts are already available online and the fourth should be released anytime now).7,200 bloggers answered the survey questions this year, and the biggest findings show an increase in the number of people blogging with mobile devices and a steady increase in "mommy bloggers."The demographics of respondents put together a picture of bloggers in 2010:

• Two-thirds of bloggers are male.
• 65% are age 18-44.
• Bloggers are more affluent and educated than the general population:
• 79% have college degrees and 43% have graduate degrees.
• 33% have a household income of $75,000 or more.
• 25% have a household income of $100,000 or more.
• 81% have been blogging more than 2 years.
• 64% say they blog as a hobby and for fun while 34% blog part-time for another business or to support their own business.  Just 1% blog full-time for a company.
• 11% say blogging is their primary income source.

A few of the most interesting things I found from the 2010 State of the Blogosphere report demonstrate just why blogs are no longer just personal websites but rather true examples of Authoritative Content:

• 1 out of 3 bloggers has worked as a writer, producer, reporter, or on air personality with traditional media.
• 90% of bloggers blog about their industries.
• 72% of bloggers manage their blogs by themselves.
• 54% define their blogging style as 'expert' and 39% define their styles as 'journalistic.'
• Approximately 4 out of 5 bloggers use Twitter.
• Blogs are catching up to print and online news sources in terms of trustworthiness, as shown in the chart below.

What do you think?  If you hear someone say that blogs are losing popularity, you might want to point them to this post and the 2010 State of the Blogosphere report so they can learn what's really going on in the world of blogging.