Demographics

How to spell demographics

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce demographics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does demographics mean?

1. nounThe statistical characteristics of a population or audience, such as age, income, gender and location.

Demographics in a sentence

• The marketing team studied the demographics of their loyal customers before the launch.

• Shifting demographics in the region forced the council to plan more schools.

Where does demographics come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word reaches back to the Greek demos, meaning 'the common people' or 'a populace', the same root that gives us 'democracy', literally rule by the people. To that was joined graphein, 'to write down' or 'to record', the element behind 'graph', 'photograph' and countless other terms. A French scholar, Achille Guillard, coined 'demographie' in 1855 for the statistical study of populations, and English quickly adopted it as 'demography'. The plural-looking 'demographics' grew up later, especially in twentieth-century marketing and the social sciences, to mean the measurable traits of a group such as age, income and location. The spelling keeps the Greek 'ph' for the /f/ sound, which is the detail writers must remember rather than reaching for a simple 'f'.

How the word is built

• demo- (from Greek demos: the common people)
• graph (from graphein: to write or record)
• -ics (noun suffix naming a field of study or its data)