AMA members get exclusive, free access to this report from ESOMAR, the global association for the data and insights industry.
Below is an excerpt from the report:
In a pattern that has been present for some time now, the North American region witnesses the ambivalence of its two very distinct markets. On the one hand, the U.S. reports a healthy, positive absolute growth rate of +2.6% that remains positive even after taking inflation into account (+0.1%). Canada, on the other hand, remains immersed in the domestic challenge of adapting to a changing industry and thus reported a flat growth that turns negative (-2.2%) after inflation is accounted for.
Throughout the years, the U.S. has proven to be one of the most resilient markets and is currently one of the most dynamic ones, not only embracing the consolidation of new players related to new technologies, but welcoming them, as evidenced by the $4 billion expenditure in the analytics sector. It is worth noting, though that the analytics sector was redefined, and adjusted for 2017 as well, to include not only the turnover related to companies solely specialized in this area, but also the turnover related to such services but performed by companies considered part of the traditional sector. This categorization of spend, thus, provides more accurate information on the share of turnover dedicated to analytics research. However, at just +0.1%, industry growth (discounting the effect of inflation) was markedly lower than the optimistic +4% forecasted for 2018. Throughout 2019, it will be interesting to see whether the sector reaches the +3% growth level currently forecasted by the market commentators.