An Overview of Indian Demographics and its Implications
on Marketing Planning

By

Jaspreet Kaur
Rajat Tayal
PGDBA Ist Sem
GSBA
Greater Noida
 

Introduction

The measure of population involves a tool, known as "Demography". Demography is a statistical study of human populations. It is a general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, i.e., one that changes over time. It includes the study of the size, structure and distribution of populations and spatial and /or temporal changes in them in response to birth, death, migration and aging. In this report, we give a broader view. We include birth, death, migration, aging, languages, education, nationality, religion, ethnicity and household etc.

Being at the crossroads of several disciplines such as geography, economics, sociology or epidemiology, demography offers tools to approach a large range of population issues by combining a more technical quantitative approach that represents the core of the discipline with many other methods borrowed from social or other sciences. Demographic research is conducted in universities, in research institutes as well as in statistical departments and in several international agencies.

How is the data collected

Data can be broadly divided two types- primary and secondary data. Primary data is the data that is collected directly from the field of survey. Secondary data is the data that is collected from some other sources such as survey organizations, previous companies that have done research on the same product or census data. Eg.- NSSO( National Sample Survey Organization). Data can be collected in various ways as well. Data can be collected in the following ways :

1) Census :

2) Questionnaire:

Demographic Factors

The crude birth rate is the annual number of live births per thousand people.

Age-specific fertility rates are the annual number of live births per 1000 women in particular age groups (usually age 15-19, 20-24 etc.)

The crude death rate is the annual number of deaths per 1000 people

The expectation of life (or life expectancy) is the number of years which an individual at a given age could expect to live at present mortality levels

Population in India.

Total Population:

The total population of the country stands at 1,129.9 million(July 1, 2007 est. CIA)

Growth rate of Population

The map I shows the growth of population from 1960 to 2004.

Population density in India

According to the map (see Map II), the highest population density is found in various places like Shimla, Delhi, Daman Diu, Lakshwadeep, Pondicherry. This is due to the fact that the total area in these places is very low compared to the number of people living in these areas. Population density is also high in places such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala. The lowest population density is found in places like Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura, Mizoram etc. If we look into the above map we will see that these places are the places with extreme climatic conditions which makes it difficult for human beings to live. Population density differs vastly over a range of over 1000 people/sq.km to less than 100 people/sq.km.

Literacy Rate

The total literacy rate in India is 79,9% (2007 est.)

The literacy rate is the highest in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, HP, Kerala, Karnataka and the lowest in Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, MP. (see Map III).

Age

31.8% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age

Sex ratio:

At birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
Under 15 years: 1.098 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.061 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female
Total population: 1.064 male(s)/female (2006 est.)
Age wise classification of Urban Population:
0–14 years: 30.8%, male: 188,208,196, female: 171,356,024
15–64 years: 64.3%, male: 27,258,259, female: 30,031,289 (2007 est.)
Age wise classification of Rural Population:
male: 381,668,992, female: 360,948,755 (2001 Census)
The average age of Indians is 24.8 years.

Residential Status

72.22% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 2000 towns and cities

Religions

Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.1%, Christian 2.31%, Buddhists 1.05%, Sikh 1.93%, Jains 0.41%, others or not stated 0.76% (2001 Census)

Languages

There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these by far is Hindi with some 337 million (the second largest being Bengali with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as "official languages". In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.

Incomes and Consumptions

Here the COST OF LIVING INDEX NUMBER should be consider. It is defined as the amount of money required by a person to fulfill his daily requirements.

Years

2005

2015

2025

Household income bracket	No. of household (million)	Aggregate disposable income (Rs. Lakh crore)	Aggregate consumption. (Rs.lakh crore)
>10lk	9.5	21.7	14.1
2-10lk	128	51.5	41.1
90000-2lk	93.1	13.7	11.9
<90000	49.9	2.6	2.4

Number of Households

In India there are total 152,009,467 number of households where rural includes 111,591,326 and urban includes 40,418,141.

Marketing Implication of Demographic Factors

Marketing planning is done after careful analysis of the macro environmental factors. The prominent among these factors are the demographic factors. DEMOGRAPHICS refer to the characteristics of population, including such factors as size, growth and distribution. Because people constitute markets, demographics are of special interest to marketing executives. They are useful to marketers as they are related to behavior and are easy to gather. Demographic characteristics strongly affect buyer's  behaviour. Fast growth of population accompanied with rising income means expanding markets, that gives growing markets for products and services.



Map I
Population growth, from 443 million in 1960 to 1,004 million in 2000


Map II
Population scenario of India


Map III
Literacy rate in India

References

1.http://www.theotherindia.org/affirmative-action/population-data-from-nssos-thick-survey-2004-05.h tml

2. http://www.censusindia.net/

3. http://www.mapsofindia.com/census2001/literacyrate.htm

4. Etzel, Walker, Stanton & Pandit, "Marketing –concepts and cases", Tata McGraw-Hill Co, Inc. New York, 2007, 13^th edition.

5. Kurtz and Boone, "Principles of Marketing", Thomson Learning Inc. South Western 2006, 12^th edition.

6. Philip Kotler, "Marketing Management", Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersay, 2000, 10^th edition.
 

Jaspreet Kaur
Rajat Tayal
PGDBA Ist Sem
GSBA
Greater Noida
 

Source: E-mail October 13, 2007

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