{"id":99582,"date":"2021-06-08T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T15:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=99582"},"modified":"2025-12-11T14:29:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:29:23","slug":"the-state-of-backups-whos-most-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/the-state-of-backups-whos-most-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Backups: Who\u2019s Most at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Backup<\/p>\n

June is Backup Awareness Month and we\u2019re now in our 13th year of working with The Harris Poll to ask a simple question: \u201cHow often do you back up all the data on your computer?\u201d We\u2019re always interested to see how average folks think about their data, and what they use for their primary backups. This year we also asked people about their history with data loss, and whether or not they are firmly grounded on how \u201cthe cloud\u201d works. The results… may shock you.<\/p>\n

How Backups Are Trending in 2021<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Good news here, the results are positive! Of people who own a computer, more than ever are backing up daily, if not even more often: Our 2021 number is 11%. This is only an increase of one percentage point over last year, which may not seem like much, but does underline a positive upward trend over the years (6% in 2018, 9% in 2019, and 10% in 2020). As a computer backup provider<\/a>, we\u2019re thrilled that backups and disaster recovery are increasingly top of mind for people.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, 20% of those who own a computer have never backed up all the data on their systems, led by people 65 and older at 31%. It\u2019s time to go visit the grandparents and help them back up their computers (I know I do!).<\/p>\n

While the number of people who never<\/em> back up their computers is down about 54.5% from when we first started the survey (35% in 2008 versus 20% in 2021), that still means one in five people are at risk of losing all their data should they have a computer or systems failure. That\u2019s too much precious data at risk.<\/p>\n

\"Computer
Love seeing the daily and yearly backups continue to rise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Different Look<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Below, we take a look at the detailed breakdown of backup frequency over the years that we\u2019ve been conducting the survey.<\/p>\n

\"Frequency<\/a><\/p>\n

In the chart above you can see that for the most part, things are pretty stable. The \u201cnever\u201d category remains near the all-time low it reached last year, while yearly and monthly backups hold steady.<\/p>\n

Looking at the pie chart, it’s nice to see that over the years the mix has become more spread out as the \u201cnever\u201d category gets whittled down.<\/p>\n

\"Computer<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall, we take this to mean that data awareness remains at an all-time high, which is great news for people and their data.<\/p>\n

Who Is the Mythical \u201cBest Backup Person?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If we were to try find a person who is likely to be a \u201cbacker upper\u201d (we define this as a person who owns a computer and backs it up at least once a day) here are some of the characteristics we’d look for: A woman between 35-44 years of age (21% likely to backup versus 9% of those 18-34 and 6% of those 55-64), who lives in the Western United States (17% more likely to back up vs. the South and Midwest at 9% and 7%, respectively), and with a household income of over $100K (13% likely to back up their data versus those households of $50K-$74.9K which are at 6%).<\/p>\n

Other Interesting Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Data Loss Is a Big Deal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Like we mentioned above, one in five of those who own a computer and never back up their data are at risk of losing all<\/em> the data on their computer, which is problematic. Especially when you consider that of the people who own a computer:<\/p>\n