The One Thing You Need to Know About What the Global Consumer Marketplace in 2030 Will Be Like

The fastest growth in the world’s consumer ranks will come from unexpected places in the coming years — and much of that growth will be found in Asia.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asia_NASA_image.jpg

What will the world look like in 2030, now just over half a decade away? If you are a company engaged in international business today or you are a global investor, you need to be aware that the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world are not the “usual suspects” — China, India, and major European powers. Today, the fastest growth in consumer populations is happening in places all across Asia. This article presents new findings on just where on the planet the fastest growth is happening right now in consumer markets — information that you can — and should — use to your absolute advantage, both for your company and for your portfolio. Indeed, the buzzword for marketers of any product or service today and likewise for all investors should be one word: Asia, Asia, Asia!

Overview

As a strategic management professor and consultant, I generally spend my summers not at my condo on the beach (I don’t have one…yet) or in the south of France (I’m still building my consulting business, not resting on my laurels). Rather, I spend much of my summers teaching a course in international business. Each summer, this is like a refresher course for me on what are — and will be — the major trends going on in business globally, as one who works quite a bit focused on businesses right here in the “Good Ole’ U.S.A.” with their management and their marketing efforts. Because each year this class teaches as much to me as it does to my students, getting ready for this class is a favorite part of what I do to keep up-to-date with the wide, wide world of business from my perch just outside of New Orleans.

And so it was with great interest that I just reviewed an article put together by the very good data analysts at Visual Capitalist, They recently published an article entitled “The World’s Largest Consumer Markets in 2030.” Their article shone the spotlight on a very interesting aspect of the global economy — one that should influence how you think about the world of business both now and into the future. It should make you look beyond the “usual suspects” of global business, like China, India, the UK, France, and Germany — the countries and economies that seem to dominate the business news coverage today. Yes, these countries and their economies are huge! Their fortune is our fortune, and conversely, their misfortunes can be our misfortunes as well. That is because coming on fast — very fast — are a group of countries and economies that are growing as fast or faster than the world’s most prominent ones today — even though that seems to be where all our collective focus is directed. The bottom line is simple: Look to Asia, folks! That is where the fastest growth will be in the decade to come — and likely beyond!

The Growth in Consumers Globally

The Visual Capitalist piece was based on data from the World Data Lab (WDL). The WDL is a research organization that puts out a report twice annually — The World Consumer Outlook — that monitors the world’s consumer population. Now, with a global population of just over 8 billion people, just how many of them are considered to be a part of the global consumer economy today? According to the WDL’s definition, a consumer is any person on the planet who spends more than $12 (US) daily. By that standard, the majority of the people who inhabit the planet (over 4 billion) can be considered to be consumers today.

As you can see in Figure 1 (The 20 Largest Consumer Markets in the World in 2030), the World Data Lab recently updated its forecast for how large country-specific consumer markets will be by 2030 — just a mere 5 years and change away! As you can see, China — with 1.1 billion — yes, with a “B” — consumers — will continue to lead the world in terms of the sheer size of its consumer market. And by 2030, India stands to be the second largest consumer with 773 million consumers — a 46% increase in consumer population from where it stands presently in 2024! And the United States will have 348 million consumers in 2030, representing a 4% increase over where we stand today.

Figure 1: The 20 Largest Consumer Markets in the World in 2030

Source: Visual Capitalist, “The World’s Largest Consumer Markets in 2030,” February 2024 (Used with permission), based on data from the World Data Lab, “World Data Pro: Release Note,” November 2023.

The complete projection of the countries with the greatest number of consumers by 2030 is provided in Table 1 (20 Largest Consumer Markets in 2030, Ranked by Numbers of Consumers). As you can see, the only other North American country making the top 20 projection is Mexico (at number 9), and the only South American country is Brazil (ranking 5th globally). The rest of the seventeen countries in this top 20 list come from Europe and Asia! Thus, especially considering that China (with almost 1.1 billion consumers) and India (with approximately 800 million consumers) are each more than double the U.S. market and dwarf every other nation on the list, it should come as no surprise that the bulk of the world’s consumers are located in Asian markets!

Table 1: 20 Largest Consumer Markets in 2030, Ranked by Numbers of Consumers

🇨🇳 China: 1,062,294,436
🇮🇳 India: 772,929,623
🇺🇸 U.S.: 348,393,863
🇮🇩 Indonesia: 158,448,996
🇧🇷 Brazil: 135,902,978
🇷🇺 Russia: 127,324,784
🇯🇵 Japan: 118,264,539
🇵🇰 Pakistan: 99,263,255
🇲🇽 Mexico: 91,698,269
🇧🇩 Bangladesh: 87,183,060
🇻🇳 Vietnam: 80,383,445
🇩🇪 Germany: 80,370,656
🇹🇷 Turkey: 79,955,332
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: 69,179,607
🇫🇷 France: 67,980,532
🇪🇬 Egypt: 67,710,385
🇵🇭 Philippines: 65,545,279
🇹🇭 Thailand: 58,237,555
🇮🇹 Italy: 55,596,017
🇮🇷 Iran: 55,219,774

Source Data: Visual Capitalist, “The World’s Largest Consumer Markets in 2030,” February 2024 (Used with permission), based on data from the World Data Lab, “World Data Pro: Release Note,” November 2023.

The real headline in all of this data, to me, as a management consultant and analyst, is just how fast the consumer population in Asia is growing — both in the short and long term — at present. The World Data Lab projected in its November report that just for the year 2023, several Asian nations — beyond the “market leaders” of China and India, will have added more consumers to their economies than will have the United States. In fact, as can be seen in Figure 2 (Fastest Growing Consumer Economies in 2023 {Excluding China and India}), Indonesia (with more than 5 million new consumers), Bangladesh and Vietnam (with approximately 4 million), and the Phillippines (with over 2 million) all added more consumers last year (2023) than did the U.S. In fact, taking China and India into account, nine of the top fourteen countries in terms of “consumer gain” globally are today located in Asia and the Middle East (Egypt, Iran, and Turkey). And looking to the 2030 projections on the number of consumers in each country, you

Figure 2: Fastest Growing Consumer Economies in 2023 (Excluding China and India)

Source: World Data Lab, “World Data Pro: Release Note,” November 2023 (Used with permission).

can see in Table 2 (The Fastest Growing Consumer Markets in 2030, Ranked) that this pattern is projected to continue — and perhaps even accelerate — over the coming years. In fact, Bangladesh is projected to have a higher consumer growth rate (at 59%) than any other country in the world when all is said and done in 2030! And while the much larger Indian consumer base is projected to grow by 46% by 2030, the Philippines (35%), Vietnam (34%), Pakistan (30%), and Indonesia (27%) will all see their consumer populations grow in excess of 25% by the year 2030.

Table 2: The Fastest Growing Consumer Markets in 2030, Ranked

🇧🇩 Bangladesh: +59%
🇮🇳 India: +46%
🇵🇭 Philippines: +35%
🇻🇳 Vietnam: +34%
🇵🇰 Pakistan: +30%
🇮🇩 Indonesia: +27%
🇪🇬 Egypt: +25%
🇨🇳 China: +15%
🇮🇷 Iran: +11%
🇹🇭 Thailand: +10%
🇧🇷 Brazil: +9%
🇲🇽 Mexico: +9%
🇹🇷 Turkey: +8%
🇺🇸 U.S.: +4%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: +3%
🇫🇷 France: +3%
🇷🇺 Russia: 0%
🇩🇪 Germany: 0%
🇮🇹 Italy: -1%
🇯🇵 Japan: -3%

Analysis and Discussion

At the outset of this article, I described how I had run across this data as part of my research for putting together my upcoming summer class in international business. And yes, the World Data Lab report and the Visual Capitalist’s graphics will be a part of the “required reading” for that course.

However, I feel that what I uncovered is worth your attention as well, wherever you may reside in the wide world of business and whatever you may do. This is because of a simple fact: The growth of the consumer base around the world is important to all of us! And yet, most of us — and I’ll include myself prior to doing this research — wouldn’t likely be able to identify just which countries have the largest and/or fastest growing population of consumers (be honest, how many of you would have just answered, “The United States” to which country had the largest consumer population today?). Likewise, European countries are lagging in consumer growth — or even seeing flat (Germany) or negative (Italy) growth at present. The fastest growth in the consumer population is indeed found in what to Americans would be unfamiliar and almost, dare I say, unimaginable places, like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, to name but a few.

Add all of this up, and there’s only one thing to be said about the data you have seen in this article: You need to be paying far more attention to developments across Asia, economically, politically, socially, and yes, geopolitically. Asian markets are presently — and will continue to see — the greatest percentage and real growth in consumers globally. And the global growth in the consumer class is vitally important today. Consider that World Data Labs estimates that just this year — 2024 — a “net” 109 million consumers will be added globally. This will add — put your coffee cup down to save your computer screen — $2.8 trillion — yes, with a “T” — worth of spending to the world economy — with much of that growth happening — yes, you guessed it — in Asia!

And so the buzzword for marketers of any product or service today and likewise for all investors should be one word: Asia, Asia, Asia! Truly today, with the rapid growth throughout the ranks of the Asian market, you and your business need to be focused on how to take best advantage of the rapidly growing consumer class all across the region, both today and into the future!

About David Wyld

David C. Wyld is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. You can view all of his work at https://authory.com/DavidWyld. You can subscribe to his Medium article feed at https://davidwyld.medium.com/subscribe.

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