Market Research Basics: Finding Psychographic Data
Psychographic Data
"Psychographics identifies lifestyle habits, values, attitudes, and other defining attributes" (source). This article from ESRI explains the difference between psychographic and demographic data. Free & public library data sources are listed first, or jump to UNC library sources
Free & Public Library Sources
American Time Use Survey (BLS)
The American Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
Industry Associations/Trade Publications
Advanced Google search techniques will be helpful to locate articles and reports about your industry's customers. Trade publications often reference or summarize studies that are behind paywalls.
Independent Research Organizations
Research organizations like the Pew Research Center conduct national surveys and publish reports on many topics. Search for national surveys from reputable organizations to find additional psychographic information. Example report from the Pew Research Center: As Millennials Near 40, They’re Approaching Family Life Differently Than Previous Generations.
Data Axle Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA)
The U.S. Consumers/Lifestyles database in Data Axle provides psychographic data and market segments. Searching is very similar to searching for businesses.
Watch the video for a sample search or follow the instructions below.
- Once you are in the database, under “U.S. Consumers/ Lifestyles” click search
- Click on the “advanced search” tab
- Select your geography, ex. City/State
- After every data variable you add, go to the right hand side and click on “update count”
- Under “Lifestyles” you can select relevant data variables for your business. Ex. “Home Improvement” or “Motor Vehicles”.
- Update count. You can view results here or continue to add in more variables as necessary for the other datasets. Ex. “Home Owner” under “Consumer snapshot” update count if necessary and view results.
- If you added any data from the “consumer snapshot” you will not get a list of names but a summary of the data instead.
- You can rerun the data for different locations and data variables to get a better snapshot of who your customer is and where they live.
- Roper Center's iPollOffers extensive database of opinion poll datasets. Roper’s iPOLL allows searching at the question level. The Center archives national opinion polls back to 1935, both U.S. and some international polls. Holdings include survey results data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, ABC, CBS, Wall Street Journal and many more. Many datasets are available for instant download in ASCII or SPSS format. Datasets not available for immediate download may be requested from the Center to be queued for digitization.
NOTE: First time users to NEW Roper iPoll need to self-register for access at login. Your credentials from Classic iPOLL will NOT work without new registration as of 8/14/2020. Classic iPOLL will no longer be updated after Sept 1, 2020.
UNC Library Sources
You must have an active ONYEN and password to access these databases.
- Mintel AcademicThese reports are rich in details about consumer lifestyles, motivations, and more. The Interactive Databook in each report includes survey questions and answers.
- StatistaStatista is a great starting place. It's a catch-all for industry data, consumers, market research, and more. Search by keyword.
- Euromonitor PassportReports include data & analysis on consumer lifestyles.
- SimplyAnalyticsSimplyAnalytics is your best bet for getting the demographic & psychographic data you need. Check out this page for details about how to build a customer persona, find out how many potential customers you have and where they are, expenditures, and more. We have access to survey data from Simmons and hyperlocal Nielsen market data.
- PolicyMapAccess social, economic, health and demographic data about U.S. communities and markets in this online mapping tool. View data on map, in table or chart format, and download via the sidebar menu. Reports provide a summary snapshot of an area: Community Profile, Community Health Profile, Rental Housing Report, and Housing Mortgage Report.
Business Research Consultant/Librarian
