How We Work
100% of Consumer Spending
Every country, 9,000+ cities, and every market segment.
Our core pillar is making everyone count.
We look at daily spending, adjusted for local prices and harmonized globally, to get a single source of truth for who spends what and how.
Consumer class = anyone spending $13+/day (2021 PPP). Middle class spans $13–130/day. Rich sits above $130/day. Everyone else is Vulnerable and Poor.
World population 2025
8.1B
We measure what consumers do, not what they say
We capture the people income might not see: children, retirees, high-savers, and the informal economy.
Consumer class · $13+/day
$85T
Income
($28/day)
This is what consumers earn
Save · $14T
$71T
Spend
($24/day)
This is what they do with their earnings
From there we scale, shape and diversify our data.
Globally consistent, refreshed four times a year, spanning 50 years: backcast 2000 through nowcast 2026 to forecast 2050.
190+
Countries
9,000+
Cities
200+
Spending categories
10+
Datasets
Segmented by
- 100+ spending groups
- 100+ income groups
- Gender
- Age (0–80+)
- 8 generations
- Household
- Cities / states / rural
- Nominal, PPP, local currencies
Specialized data
- Financial Inclusion & Behaviour
- Net Wealth & Assets
- Case-by-case affordability thresholds
- Case-by-case pricing analysis
- Retail Opportunity Locator
Backcast
2000
Nowcast
2026
Forecast
2050
With this data, we are able to
Tell you where your addressable consumer is
Every threshold, from the first $2/day of food spend to $60/day life insurance, sized today and a decade out.
Apply consistent definitions across 9,000+ cities
One harmonized city framework worldwide, so London, Lagos and Ho Chi Minh City are measured the same way - and comparable side by side.
Focus on your target group and their spending
We find the people who look like your buyers - age, spending, city, access to finance - and see what else they spend on, and how much of the wallet you capture.
Note: Consumers are those who spend $13/day+ (2021 PPP).
Matched to your customer
What else they spend on
housing
food
your category
transport
health
other
your share of wallet
De-average growth in your categories
One global growth rate hides everything that matters. We break it down by category, market, age and consumer tier - turning a single average into tens of thousands of distinct growth stories.
1 global average
12 main spending categories
2,400+ categories × markets
38,881+ growth stories
age × consumer tier × categories × markets
Sound and reliable methodology
How the model is built
01 · Sources
Public, licensed, proprietary
Public & open
- Household surveys
- National accounts
- Macro forecasts
- Population, geography, alternative data
Private & licensed
- Country surveys in detail
- Company data
02 · The model
Six steps, one pipeline
- 1
Harmonize
- 2
Distribute
- 3
Reweight
- 4
Forecast
- 5
Disaggregate
- 6
Geolocate
03 · The core dataset
One cell = one person, category, city, year
One cell
one person,
one category,
one city,
one year
- Who
- 8.2bn people
- What
- 200+ categories
- Where
- 190+ countries, 9,000+ cities
$70.9T across every cell, 2026
The organizations we do this for
Strategic results
Case examples across categories
A snapshot of the questions we've answered for global consumer brands.
Coffee
Store expansion & density
Identify the optimal number of locations, city by city, for global store expansion.
Luxury bags
Addressing Gen Z
Pinpoint the next key cities in China driving Gen Z female luxury growth over five years.
Communication
Pricing & affordability
How many people can afford a smartphone, by country - and when the tipping points hit.
Soft drinks
Scenario modelling
Consumer spend scenarios under shocks like a sugar tax or a recession, by country.
Real estate
City footprint
Based on consumers and category spend, are you present in the right cities?
How to access our data & services
Four ways to work with us
Pick the entry point that fits how your team makes decisions.
01 - The platform
World Data Intelligence
Self-serve, one login. Screen every market, size the opportunity and price to what each one can afford.
- Seats scoped to your markets
- Explore, Affordability, Data Catalog
- Re-run in full four times a year
- Free trial, then an annual license
02 - The feed
API & raw data
The same numbers, inside your own stack, for teams that would rather query than click.
- API endpoints, queried on demand
- Raw data drops for your warehouse
- Refreshed with every model run
- Docs, SDKs and support included
03 - Our analysts
Analyst partnership
Our team does the analysis with you, so the answer arrives as a decision rather than a table.
- Analyst hours included in the license
- Bespoke cuts and one-off deliveries
- Reports, decks and briefings
- A named contact for your category
04 - Pilots & bespoke
A build of your own
When the question is bigger than the product, we build the dataset or the platform for it.
- Three-month pilots on one decision
- Advisory retainers with your team
- Multi-year bespoke data projects
- Funded custom platforms
Credentials deck
Get the World Data Lab credentials deck
A concise overview of who we are, what we do, and how our data powers decisions for governments, foundations and Fortune 500 clients.
- Who we are and what we build
- The methodology and dataset in brief
- Selected client work across sectors
- Ways to engage - from platform to bespoke
Ready to plan with real consumer data?
Talk to our team about applying WDL intelligence to your next category, market or cohort question.