Apparently, a few select people DO care about the Oxford comma.

The results of our study are in. We have collected a whole slew of statistics from you, the community at large, regarding your thoughts on the Oxford comma. To make things lively and graphical, I have decided to reveal the data in the form of pie charts in addition to percentage statistics.

Let us recall the original question. Oxford comma: Yay or nay? Overall, 73% of our audience of over 200 voters responded yay, and 27% responded nay. Graphically:


Honestly, this roughly lined up with similar polls we had seen online. To make things interesting, we decided to also examine demographic statistics such as gender and college major/area of study. I should note that many of the people I polled were working professionals who worked in fields entirely unrelated to their college major. I did not poll anyone who did not have at least some college experience. This was not on purpose - I just polled whoever was convenient, and I happen to work at a university. The statistics with regards to gender were fairly boring - for both males and females, the graph above was essentially replicated. The statistics with regard to area of study were a bit more interesting. Before proceeding, I should further note that I also "polled" some celebrities, politicians, and academics by checking out their webpages to add some fun and variety to this poll. Now, without further ado, here are the charts and statistics.

Science and Technology

Yay: 84%, Nay: 16%

Pure Mathematics

Yay: 71%, Nay: 29%

Law and Policy

Yay: 100%, Nay: 0%

Business

Yay: 92%, Nay: 8%

Liberal Arts

Yay: 63%, Nay: 37%

Education

Yay: 100%, Nay: 0%

Journalism

Yay: 5%, Nay: 95%

A few remarks to finish off this post:

• My fiancee Sarah and I predicted a great number of these statistics ahead of time. One set of statistics we did not predict, however, was the one associated with liberal arts. We honestly figured a lot more people trained in the liberal arts would be against the Oxford comma as was the case for journalists. However, I suppose the result is not entirely unexpected as the Chicago Manual of Style, which advocates the Oxford comma, is the grammar bible of choice for many liberal artists.
  
• I polled a lot of people with a background in law. They all, to a t, replied yay. I later learned the Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers insists that lawyers use the Oxford comma. As an aside, I should note the improper use (or absence) of a comma can lead to a world of hurt in the courtroom, as illustrated by this court case.
  
• Facebook does not use the Oxford comma. Neither does any major news publication or magazine.
  
• We originally decided to separate pure mathematics from science/technology early into our poll. A lot of students I knew studying pure mathematics were against the Oxford comma, illustrating a clear break in trend from the other sciences. However, I then began to start examining the writing habits of prominent mathematicians in the field and found a different set of preferences. And for the record, Terry Tao seems to prefer the Oxford comma.
  
• I use the Oxford comma. Sarah often does not. We somehow manage.
  
• I only included American citizens in this poll. If I was to include visiting Europeans I know, for example, the outcome of the poll would have been a bit different. Notably, my Italian collaborators rarely use the Oxford comma (even in their journal publications written in English) as it is not used in their native language.