Geodemography

From Freepedia

Geodemography is the study of populations in their environments. It links the sciences of demography, the study of human population dynamics, and geography, the study of the locational and spatial variation of both physical and human phenomena on Earth. ^[1].

Geodemography has been used to target consumer services to 'ideal' populations based on their lifestyle and location. These parameters have been taken from geographical databases as well as from electoral lists and credit agencies. Combining these builds a picture of the population characteristics in different locations. The geodemographic data that this provides can then be used by marketeers to target information towards those that they want to influence. This can be in the form of sales, services or even political information.

The American Marketing Association defines geodemography from their viewpoint as:

An availability of demographic consumer behavior and life style data by arbitrary geographic boundaries that are typically quite small. ^[2]

Due to the linking of population data and geographic data on such a large scale, various computer programs have been created to analyze the information and provide output for people wishing to use this information.