To connect with and address the needs of an audience, a speaker must know her audience: who they are and what they do. The same applies to any serious business.
Businesses need to understand their customers to create and deliver the right products and services. One way to do that is through demographics. Demographics is one of the most practical ways to describe a population and make better business decisions from it.
Let us look into demographics and ways to group people according to their demographics, also known as demographic segmentation. We will also look at why your business needs demographic segmentation and how you can get demographic data to power your business.
Overview
- Demographics Definition
- What is demographic data
- What is customer demographics
- Demographic data examples
- Age
- Gender
- Occupation or employment
- Marital status
- Family status and size
- Cultural background
- Nationality
- Education
- Income level
- What is Demographic Segmentation
- Uses & Importance of Demographic data
- How to Get Demographic data
- Harness the power of demographic data
- Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Demographics Definition
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, demographics are the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age or income, used mainly to identify markets.
Derived from the Greek words demo (people) and graphy (picture), demography describes the attributes of individuals or populations.
What is Demographic Data
Demographic data consists of properties, whether measured or observed, used to describe a population. This data could include age, gender, occupation, education, and so on.
Demographic data is usually collected from surveys, whether small research studies or large-scale census efforts, using physical forms, online forms, or other collection methods. User profile data collected by governments, businesses, and websites during or after signup can also be demographic data.
Typically, demographic data is used by decision-makers to guide policy, shape product decisions, and improve service delivery. Governments and businesses can observe trends and gain insights into how demographic data affects behavior patterns like lifestyle choices and buying habits. For example, awareness campaigns can be targeted at youths who are more exposed to specific social risks.
Using insights from demographic data, decision-makers can make forecasts and plan accordingly to improve the delivery of products and services.
What are customer demographics?
While demographics applies broadly across sectors, customer demographics narrows the idea down to the attributes of customers.
Businesses use customer demographics to categorize customers and identify potential prospects.
Customer demographics typically answer two practical questions: for whom to produce? and where to find them? The result is better marketing, better product design, and a clearer idea of who your best-fit customers really are.
Demographic Data Examples
The examples of demographic data can be viewed either at the individual level or at a broader group or population level. For example, attributes like age and gender are specific to individuals, while migration and fertility rate are attributes of a population.
Examples of demographic data include:
1. Age
Age is a demographic data point that affects the use of some products and services. Some products are age-specific. For example, daycare services and toys are provided for children. Wedding rings are made for adults of marriage age.
2. Gender
The preferences of each gender can differ. For example, some products and campaigns are historically marketed more heavily toward men or women based on observed buying patterns.
3. Occupation/Employment
Using occupation or employment data, decision-makers gain insights into employment rates, professional clusters, and available opportunities. For example, medical equipment is more likely to sell in a city with many health facilities and healthcare workers than in one with fewer such institutions.
4. Marital Status
Marital status influences the decision-making of individuals. For example, single individuals might be quicker to purchase personal or luxury items like a jetski, unlike married individuals who are more likely to buy products that meet a shared goal like housing, furniture, or insurance.
5. Family Status and Size
Family status and size influence spending patterns. For example, large families often spend more in total than small families because they have more people to support.
6. Cultural Background
Ancestry background is an example of demographic data that distinguishes a population. Occupation, buying habits, choice of clothes, and many other behaviors can be affected by cultural background. Cultural background includes:
Race: categorization of individuals into distinct groups based on shared physical and social characteristics, e.g. White, Black/African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander. Race can correlate with differences in education access, occupation type, health practices, and religious practices.
Ethnicity: describes the cultural inheritance, identity, language, and practices of a people in a given region. Like race, it can influence education, work, lifestyle, and habits.
Religion: the belief and worship of a deity or supernatural being. Popular religions include Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Religion strongly influences lifestyle choices, buying behavior, and sometimes occupation.
Since beliefs and traditional practices vary across cultural backgrounds, businesses can tailor their products and services to specific cultures as a form of niche marketing.
7. Nationality
Nationality or citizenship usually influences behavior, international transactions, and opportunities for migration and employment.
8. Education
The level of education of a population can be used to describe literacy rates and skill levels. Advancements in business, technology, and infrastructure are often associated with higher education levels.
9. Income Level
The income level of individuals determines spending capacity and often influences the brand, quality, or price range they choose. For example, high-income earners are more likely to purchase luxury goods than low-income earners.
Many more demographic characteristics include disability status, location, language background, and ownership or belongings. In some business contexts, profile information such as preferences, hobbies, and lifestyle is grouped alongside demographic data as part of broader audience analysis.
These example types apply to customer demographics, audience demographics, and similar business use cases.
The dynamic aspects of a population that influence demographics include:
- Migration: the movement of people from one place to another.
- Growth: increase in the number of people in a population.
- Fertility: the frequency of births in a population.
- Mortality: the frequency of deaths in a population.
These factors alter the size of a population and are important for understanding both economic and population change.
What is Demographic Segmentation
Demographic segmentation is a type of market segmentation where people are grouped based on variables or attributes like the ones listed above. For example, dividing a population into different age categories is a form of demographic segmentation.
Governments and businesses both use this kind of grouping. Governments use it for planning and resource allocation. Businesses use it to make marketing, sales, and product decisions with more precision.
In marketing and business, demographic segmentation is a core part of customer segmentation, which involves grouping people based on shared characteristics.
For example, a university could create ad copy tailored to Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat because it is easier to reach people aged 18 to 24 on those platforms.
Uses & Importance of Demographic Data
Demographic data is widely used by governments for creating policies and allocating resources. For example, a government may build more elderly care facilities if a population is largely dominated by older adults.
For businesses, demographic data is mainly a tool to reach customers and understand behavior. Customer segmentation is a major part of that process.
Customer segments, sometimes informed by market basket analysis, describe sets of customers grouped by shared attributes and habits. Customer segmentation allows businesses to:
- Understand communities and decision-makers
- Track changes in customer behavior over time
- Find and target customers
- Build more accurate buyer personas and customer profiles
- Customize products to specific consumer groups
- Boost sales
For example, knowing the percentage of women in regions with high income makes it easier for a brand like Victoria's Secret to decide where to market and expand.
Easy Ways to Get Demographic Data
To get demographic data, first determine why you are collecting it. Then identify the types and sources of demographic data that fit your needs. After that, collect the data.
Depending on the source and scale, getting demographic data can be time-consuming. You can get demographic data by conducting physical and online surveys, using existing data sources such as government websites and public records, or working with data providers.
Government census efforts and official public records are useful starting points. The upside is coverage and public availability. The downside is that collecting and organizing such data takes time, and updates can lag. Any business depending heavily on public data runs the risk of working with stale information. Another issue is that public data is often broad and hard to filter for a specific commercial use case.
For businesses, demographic data requirements are usually more specific. Common ways to get that data include:
- Surveys & forms: collecting personal information through physical or online forms.
- Marketing measures: collecting data through digital marketing campaigns across offline and online channels.
- Data providers: vendors that specialize in supplying structured and current data.
Note on Proxycurl and NinjaPear
Proxycurl, including LinkDB, has been sunset. The founder behind Proxycurl now runs NinjaPear. I am retaining the original reference here because this article historically mentioned Proxycurl, but if you are looking for current Nubela products, the relevant platform today is NinjaPear, not Proxycurl.
If you are looking for people and company data today, NinjaPear is the current platform from Nubela. It focuses on company intelligence, profile enrichment, work email lookup, company updates, customer intelligence, and competitive intelligence data.
Harness the Power of Demographic Data
Businesses and governments need to collect and use demographic data to serve customers and citizens respectively.
Since the behaviors of individuals or customers are influenced by demographics such as age, education, income, family status, and location, understanding those variables makes it easier to connect with them in a useful way.
With demographic data, businesses can make better decisions about who to serve, how to position an offer, and where to find the right audience.
If your use case goes beyond basic demographics and into live business intelligence, company data, or person enrichment, start with NinjaPear. That is where the Nubela product line lives now.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are audience demographics and analysis?
Audience demographics refer to the demographic characteristics of your audience or listeners, such as age, gender, education level, occupation, and group affiliations. Audience analysis involves identifying patterns in that data.
Who is the target audience and how do you find them?
Your target audience is the group for whom you produce goods, content, or services. You can find them through public data sources, surveys, first-party data collection, and specialized providers depending on how current and specific your needs are.
Is demographic segmentation enough on its own?
Usually not. Demographic segmentation is useful, but it works best when combined with behavioral, firmographic, psychographic, or geographic data. Age and income might tell you who someone is. Behavior tells you when they are ready to buy.
What is the difference between demographic and firmographic data?
Demographic data describes people, such as age, income, education, or marital status. Firmographic data describes companies, such as industry, employee count, revenue, and funding stage. If you sell B2B, firmographics usually matters just as much as demographics.
