Drivers of our $142bn insights industry

The following article is an excerpt from ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2024. This flagship report of ESOMAR, often dubbed as the “Bible of Market Research”, provides you with the most comprehensive overview of the state of the insights industry and the market research sector around the world using data collected by national research associations, leading companies, independent analysts, and ESOMAR representatives.

ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2024 report continues to adapt to the needs and realities of the industry. For this edition, we present a funnel-like approach to understanding the size of the overall insights industry of any given country before drilling down to understand in more detail the market research sector itself. Isolating the market research activity allows for the better understanding of its practices as it makes incursions in the other two sectors (research software and reporting), and vice versa, as shown in the image below.

Globally, the insights industry is estimated to have surpassed US$140 billion as of 2023 and is expected to surpass US$150 billion by the end of this year. Of these, the market research sector accounts for US$54 billion, the research software sector for US$56 billion, and the reporting sector for US$33 billion.

Thanks to improvements in ESOMAR’s measurement, it is now possible to estimate that, within the US$54 billion of the market research sector, around 65% corresponds to full-service and market research services (including fieldwork services), 29% corresponds to market research firms carrying out subscription and research software services, and the remaining 7% corresponds to consultancy services provided by these firms.

But which sector bore the highest growth during 2023 and, therefore, continues to push the overall insights industry upwards and forwards? The regular reader of ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2024 report would not be surprised to find that growth remains the stronghold of the research software sector.

The overall industry saw during 2023 a relative slowdown in the notable levels of investment it had received in previous years, primarily due to the high interest rates set in response to the post-pandemic high inflation. Nevertheless, while the market research sector continued to show signs of a mature industry with a modest growth rate of 4.6% in absolute terms, the research software sector pushed ahead with 12.4% and the reporting sector continues apace with 6.5%.

Overall, the countries included in ESOMAR’s Global Market Research report provided coverage for 80% of the global industry, while the remaining 20% was estimated independently. Naturally, the highest coverage, and the most detailed data, corresponds to the market research sector, which until recently (or not so recently depending on the time scale), represented the research and insights function as a whole. While data for the research software sector (presented in more detail in ESOMAR’s Global Research Software 2024 report) remains relatively scarce, ESOMAR will continue to encourage and allow countries to expand their coverage of the industry in upcoming years.

The saga continues in ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2024. Download your copy now!