Vienna, 8th November – World Data Lab (WDL) projects that 109m people will enter the Consumer class in 2024. This is a slight downgrade of 4m from WDL’s projection in May, mostly due to a slowdown in several Asian economies. However, India maintains its strong momentum, WDL projects that 34m Indians will enter the global class – almost a third of the global total – ahead of China which is estimated at 29m new consumers.
Global consumer spending is expected to remain strong in 2024, bolstered by a U.S. upgrade of $78 billion more than May’s projection. The robust U.S. economy is likely to boost spending among seniors and the wealthy, with those over 50 accounting for half of 2024’s growth ($1.4 trillion) and the rich—(those spending >$120/day in $2017PPP)—contributing over a third ($1 trillion).
Wolfgang Fengler, CEO of World Data Lab, emphasizes resilience in the global market: “In a world of global turbulence we still see the power of trendlines, especially in Asia. Our latest World Consumer Update shows that the growth of the consumer class continued steadily while we see important shifts towards older and wealthier consumers.”
Key Highlights:
- An anticipated growth of 109 million consumers globally in 2024, with consumer spending projected to climb by $2.8 trillion.
- Asia will represent 81% of new consumers- India’s growth will outpace China’s, with an additional 34M Indian consumers compared to China’s 29M.
- The urban consumer class will exceed 3 billion by the end of 2023.
- The Americas received a general upgrade, while Europe, Africa and Asia got downgraded. Notably the USA received an upwards revision of +$77B in consumer spending in 2024 and Mexico at +$8.3B. Germany and Spain both received a downward revision of around -$3B. Pakistan and Vietnam also received a downward revision of around -$3B which is comparatively larger than their European counterparts.
- Behind China and India, 12 countries will see their consumer class grow by more than 1M, including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Philippines, the USA, and Pakistan.
The World Consumer Outlook is updated four times per year to reflect the most recent economic and demographic shifts. It is the go-to source for global businesses for the most accurate data on future consumer trends, enabling organizations to make data-driven decisions and thrive in the evolving global economy.
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About World Data Lab:
World Data Lab (WDL) has a mission to create public goods that bring clarity to – and heighten the visibility of – some of the most complex challenges of our time, including the development of datasets and tools that track United Nations SDGs in real-time. To date, this includes tracking poverty, hunger, water scarcity, gender, health, and internet access in close cooperation with leading global organizations and governments (UNICEF, OECD, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and many more). By combining new data sources with groundbreaking modeling methods, WDL assists the public, governments, and other organizations in making data-driven decisions to solve the world’s biggest challenges. These tools are developed as part of our mission to democratize data and make it accessible and actionable for everyone. In short, making everyone count.
