Global MR Turnover Climbs 3.2% to $39 Billion

Global MR industry turnover grew by 3.2% to $39.1 billion in 2012, according to ESOMAR's latest Global Market Research Report. During the year, strong performance was seen in Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America, countering 'sluggish' performances elsewhere.

Europe saw 21 markets decline in 2012, as turnover for the region dropped 1.4% to $15.6 billion. The exception was Germany, which bucked the trend with growth of 5.8%.

The North American research sector recorded a third successive year of growth, with turnover increasing to $14.5 billion. In Latin America, growth surged 5.6% to $1.9 billion, making it the best performing region in 2012 - last year's top performer Asia Pacific saw turnover up 4.8% to $6.3 billion.

For the first time, Africa and the Middle East are reported as distinct regions, with 2012 revenues rising 4.8% to $399m in the former, and turnover dropping 4.3% to $265m in the latter.

With regard to MR industry confidence in 2013, just 60% of those companies that provided forecasts expect the market research industry to grow, compared with 82% last year.

As an expansion to ESOMAR's annual industry study, this year estimated revenues for the 'advisory services' sector have been incorporated, to include figures from consultancies such as Gartner, Forrester Research, International Data Corporation, Mintel and Euromonitor.

Finn Raben (pictured), ESOMAR Director General, comments: 'This report marks another important milestone in the evolution of this study, as it now includes the first 'hard data' using an expanded market definition. The inclusion of 'advisory services' adds an additional 15% to the previously measured market size, and now values our global industry at just short of US $40 billion.'

Web site: www.esomar.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.