Marketers understand the importance of doing research and analyzing demographic factors such as population, gender, education, age, economics and geography. This is why they continually track environmental factors – these factors are important in an organization’s strategy and growth.
Recently, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that the global population, while growing slowly at under 1%, will still reach 8 billion people by mid-November, 2022; 8.5 billion by 2030; 9.7 billion by 2050; and 10.4 billion in 2100. This equates to a 31% increase in Earth’s population by the end of the century.
Half of the world’s population lives in seven countries: China (1.426 billion), India (1.417 billion), United States (338 million), Indonesia (276 million), Pakistan (236 million), Nigeria (219 million), and Brazil (215 million). And, next year (2023), India will exceeds China’s population and become the most world’s most populous country.
Population growth is very unequal though; just eight countries will account for more than half of the global population growth before 2050: Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.
While some countries will experience economic growth per capita, the increasing number of older citizens will pose problems with health care and senior care. By 2050, people ages 65 and older will account for 16% of the global population, up from 10% in 2022.
And let’s not forget the importance of social factors on population. The coronavirus pandemic plays an important part of the slow population growth as well as economic impacts.
The world keeps spinning!
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the importance of environmental scanning.
- Show the World Population Clock: https://www.census.gov/popclock/
- In class, have teams of students examine different topics within the site.
- Video of U.N. Population Report: analysis: https://youtu.be/bZZ9gFnCzCM
- The U.N. World Population report can be accessed at https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf
- Optional: Assign students to read the report and report on critical information. The report may be divided into sections for different teams.
- Based on their analysis, what are the issues and risks that might occur for organizations?
- What should organizations do to prepare?
Sources: Hackett, C. (21 July 2022). Global population projected to exceed 8 billion in 2022; half live in just seven countries. Pew Research Center; Tsui, K. (11 July 2022). World’s population to hit 8 billion before year’s end. Washington Post.; other news sources.
