Low fertility rates will have an effect on consumer markets

Changing consumer markets

Shannon Roberts

There is increasing evidence that the trend towards low fertility rates (with even many developing countries now following in the footsteps of the West) and fewer children in our world will have an effect on consumer markets. In a world where money talks, will it be worth providing as many services to mothers and children?

It makes sense that businesses may start to concentrate more and more on the aging baby boomers’ needs that make up the largest chunk of the market. I stopped to read this telling article in the New Zealand Listener while standing in a checkout line, and it reiterated thoughts that have crossed my mind before – namely that my fortune could lie in setting up retirement villages! The article includes comment on “The Business of Ageing”, a 2011 report by the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, and warns:

“Businesses that continue to prioritise selling to younger groups will find their market shrinks as the baby-boomer generation ages … The mature consumer market is predicted to be the only growth market in terms of demography, with younger market segments likely to remain static or shrink.

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