Euromonitor International is pleased to launch a new Strategy Briefing: Boom or Bomb – India’s Demographics and Market Impact, which uncovers India's key demographic trends and their implications for consumer-facing businesses. India is home to nearly a fifth of the global population and is set to overtake China to become the world’s most populous nation in 2025. Strong population growth, combined with rising incomes and urbanisation, makes India a consumer market with immense potential. It is also a competitive production hub thanks to a large, growing and low-cost labour force. However, India also faces important challenges, including the need to develop urban infrastructure, create jobs and provide skills training to its workforce and tackle soaring health problems.
Key findings
- India is important to consumer-facing businesses, because has the world’s sixth largest consumer market by total expenditure, which is set to expand thanks to a growing middle class with rising incomes. Population dynamics such as increasing working-age population, urbanisation, ageing and soaring health problems are creating many opportunities and challenges in India;
- With a growing labour force, India can also offer companies a competitive manufacturing base. In order to fully harness this demographic dividend, however, India needs to create enough jobs (including jobs for women) while also providing skills training for the workforce;
- India is urbanising rapidly. The country’s urban transformation is associated with massive challenges in ensuring sufficient urban jobs and infrastructure, but it also brings about investment opportunities and creates vibrant new markets;
- Despite a young and growing population, ageing is happening in India with implications for social security, labour supply, labour productivity as well as consumption patterns;
- Meanwhile, India is faced with many health problems that stem from inadequate urban planning, worsening pollution and poor sanitation. Modern-day lifestyle changes including unhealthy nutrition and physical inactivity have further led to rising obesity and diabetes. This fuels consumer spending on health goods and medical services, as well as shaping consumption in food and beverages.
To read the full strategy briefing click here.