Found this online today very Interesting reading.  Its a bit light on details about the methodology so as an academic I'm not entirely trusting of the results - the sample size isn't that great for example and participant self-selection tends to skew results - but its still extremely interesting nonetheless. Now just imagine for a minute if GW did something like this or even just paid attention to it.  You can get the results and access to the full report here.

Some of the findings are what you would expect e.g. spending habits but there are a couple of interesting ones:

• Advertising responsible for 5% of players getting into the game, but zero players with less than 5 years experience.
• Hobby stores ability to get new players into the game has been declining.
• Older gamers spend the most money, not new players.
• 50% of all spending is done online
• 91% of respondants play 40k video games which is notable only for what it says about the respondants in the survey sample.  I would suggest that this figure would be significantly lower across the 40k population as a whole.  The 91% reflective of this being an internet survey.
• 64% of players use non-GW paints, but not necessarily exclusively.
• A majority play now defunct games such as WHFB & Mordheim, only 21% play Age of Suckmar most within the new gamer bracket.
• No one seems to like GW much outside of their fluff and miniatures.