The statistic/infographic geniuses over at Hunch polled their readers and discovered 72% of their readers keep their computer desktops tip-top and tidy, an impressive figure considering the average person’s desktop looks like someone spilled mahjong tiles. What was even more interesting was the conclusions they came to with their desktop organization findings, which may or may not apply to Unplggd readers, but gives insight about how we organize our virtual workspaces. Key findings include:

*Men are more likely to have neat desktops, but are also apt to have too many icons on their desktop (a no-no, since it slows down OS performance).

*The older you are, the more apt you are to have a messy desktop. 12% of those belonging to the 35-49 age category had a mess on their computer.

*The more education and more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a messy desktop. Hunch’s readers tend to skew to the left, as noted in their findings, but it makes sense those who are more conservative and like order would have neater desktops.

*Those who live in urban areas have desktops that reflect their environment: “…users with messy desktops are 42% more likely than those with neat desktops to live in an urban environment.”

*No surprise, neat freaks like ourselves, have desktops that reflect their overall neat and organized tendencies. Neat types also tend to own and use external hard drives.

*Work for yourself? Your desktop is 5% more likely to be messier than the average.

*Math geeks and the scientifically minded have an irrational tendencies to chaos on their desktop, 12% more so!

*And finally, those with neater desktops place their personal priority of overall quality of life over the importance of professional work (well, maybe because the messy ones are still trying to find files while us neat freaks are quicker to find what we need!).

By Gregory Han

[Go over to Unplggd to do their desktop survey. I'd love to see Lifework reader's desktops. Mine is below. It's only this "neat" because my computer was running slow and I thought if I cleaned up it might run faster. Wrong. I think I will have to bite the bullet and get more RAM.]