Gen Xers have often been the discounted or forgotten generation, but a new joint report might change some marketers' minds about who they target.
Now in their peak expenditure years, Gen Xers have been leading global consumer spending since 2021, according to the report titled "The X Factor: How Generation X is quietly driving trillions in consumer spending."
"Our findings show that Gen X is the most influential consumer cohort of the next decade," Wolfgang Fengler, co-founder and CEO of World Data Lab told USA TODAY. NielsenIQ (NIQ) and World Data Lab (WDL) worked to put together a global analysis of Gen X consumer behavior and spending trends based on proprietary data from both companies, including WDL's consumer spending forecasts.
In 2025, Gen X is expected to drive $15.2 trillion in global spending, including $5 trillion in the United States alone, according to the report. And their spending power is projected to peak at $23 trillion globally and $7 trillion in the United States in 2035.
"To put this spending power in perspective, if you treated them as their own 'country,' Gen Xers would form the world's second-largest consumer market — second only to the United States and roughly twice the size of China's total spending," said Fengler.
