Demographics v/s Complacency

Demography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space. It encompasses the study of the size, structure and distribution of populations, and spatial and/or temporal changes in them. Demographics or demographic data refers to selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research. Commonly-used demographics include race, age, income, disabilities, mobility (in terms of travel time to work or number of vehicles available), educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location. The term demographics as a noun is often used erroneously in place of demography, the study of human population, its structure and change. Although there is no absolute delineation, demography focuses on population structure, processes and dynamics, whereas demographics is most often used in the fields of media studies, advertising, marketing, and polling.

I have tried to analyze the complacency scale for most of the demographics. [Please note that these are conclusions and inferences from personal experiences and secondary data available on the internet in form of articles and blogs.]

· Age: The complacency scale if plotted against age will take the form of an “Inverted U-Shape”. As a child and when a person becomes old, due to risk aversion qualities, the complacency will be high. When a person is young, he doesn’t mind taking risk and tries to experiment with new products. Also by then he has gained some knowledge and is more likely to make wise, rational decisions

· Income: With a higher income, a person is more likely to experiment with new products and switch between brands as he can always revert back considering money isn’t the factor. But a person with low income might not be willing to experiment and instead will tend to stick to the same brand of product/service

· Education: Education and complacency are inversely related. Once a person is educated about sex, health, finance, management, etc he is more likely to take calculated risk and not be complacent

· Location: The people in WEST or rather from developed countries and above poverty line are more likely to experiment considering the range of products & services available to them. Where as a person from developing nation might not have many options and hence would stick to the available brand