Insights Market Development Index

The index, largely inspired by the United Nations’ work on the Human Development Index, looks at several aspects of the insights industry that result in a unique score for each country, area and territory.

How ethically conscious are the members of the insights community in that country? How healthy was the growth in a country over the last two years? How many professionals from the so-called “client-side” and research support services are associates and therefore play an active role in defending and representing the industry? These are just a few questions that can be found “encoded” in the score of the IMDI.

What is the purpose of the IMDI?

Much like GDP is a lousy indicator to measure the development of nations – a well-known grievance of economists – so is turnover to understand that of the insights world across the world’s markets. A proposed solution was brought forward by ESOMAR in 2021 through the creation of a compound index that looked beyond the limited notion of turnover. The result was a white paper that explored the viability, as well as the execution, of a new measure: the Insights Market Development Index (IMDI).

The Insights Market Development index is built upon the foundations of three separate pillars:

  1. Cost of commissioning research

  2. Turnover per capita for the insights industry modulated by 2-year growth

  3. Representation of professionals from the so-called user’s side combined with per capita ethics code-abiding professionals

Fill in this form to download the ESOMAR's Insights Market Development Index 2023

Access the reports from previous years:

Insights Market Development Index (IMDI) 2022
Insights Market Development Index (IMDI) 2021