Regular readers of Reference Reviews will require little introduction to the market research publications of Euromonitor. This latest volume focuses attention on the consumer markets of Latin and North America and brings together market size data across a wide range of consumer products. The volume is branded as being the 18th edition. However, it is really the first edition under the title Consumer Americas. This volume replaces the former titles, Consumer Latin America (RR 2010/166) and Consumer USA, and coverage has been expanded from six Latin American countries to include Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay. A total of 14 Pan‐American countries are therefore covered.
The statistical data is presented across four sections. The Socio‐Economic Parameters section, extending over 30 pages, presents comparative statistics for the 14 countries for the years 2004‐2009. The data presented include economic indicators, foreign trade, population, health, households, labour, income, consumer expenditure, retailing, travel and telecommunications. These allow for each country to be quickly compared within the regional context – looking at population, for example, we can quickly see that in 2009 almost 42 per cent of Guatemala's population was under 14 years of age while Canada is the lowest at 16.6 per cent. We can also see that the US spends $712 per capita on education while Guatemala's figure is only $30 per capita.
The Consumer Markets sections present data for eighteen markets. It is therefore again easy to see past and 2014 forecasted sales of these products across each country. The inclusion of per capita figures illustrates at a glance the wide economic and social disparities among the different countries. The shortest section covers Market Growth Rankings which, across three pages, presents a series of tables ranking the countries with the fastest real growth in each of the product areas over the period 2004‐2009. The final, and by far the largest section of this volume, is a Country Snapshot section. This considers each of the 14 countries across a series of standard tables. These are in much greater detail than the overview tables presented earlier and values are given, when available, in the national currency.
This volume is an authoritative and handy resource for statistical data on the Pan‐American market. Much of the data it contains are not unique coming from official sources and trade and industry organizations. However Euromonitor have brought together in one place data which would take a considerable amount of time and effort to gather and have presented it in a clear, concise and easily comparable format. It is thoroughly recommended for all reference library collections.
