This week we are engaging in the one of the most basic forms of demographic forecasting to see shifts in consumer markets. Measuring population growth by age allows us to roughly estimate changing market sizes for age-specific products and services.
We are looking at population change in absolute numbers as well as in relative terms. Sometimes it’s preferable to have shifts in market sizes estimated in percentages (i.e. retirement living facilities have a growth potential of 44 per cent in the coming decade) while at other times the absolute size of a market helps drives home the magnitude of change (Australia will have 1.4 million additional people of retirement age).
