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Tis the season…for data. While Santa’s workshop is best known for toy production, the Demographic Research Department works year round to forecast toy demand, plan optimal sleigh routes and more. The North Pole office subscribes to Social Explorer to study population distributions and trends.
Santa's demographics team, led by Mrs. Claus, tracks the kid population across the US and through the decades.
To get a rough idea of the overall American Santa audience, the team mapped where kids under 10 live. The satellite view on the right helps Santa's Workshop plan his sleigh route.
The Demographic Research Department also digs into historical data to find out how the child population has changed over the decades, based on data from the decennial Census and the American Community Survey. The following graph shows the general upward trend, the 1970s/1980s dip and the current high.
As the above graph shows, the child population is at an all time high (40,376,380). Historical data helps put this into context. While higher than ever in number, children make up a shrinking proportion of the US population overall.
Looking internationally, the US still has a higher proportion of children (under 10 years old) than most European Union countries. (Click here for more on Social Explorer's Eurostat data and maps.)
The US child population is 12.6 percent according to the latest American Community Survey (2015). Comparing Social Explorer's Eurostat data for dozens of countries, the U.S. ranks behind only Ireland and Iceland in terms of kid population (15.3 percent and 14.0 percent, respectively). Germany and Italy are the countries with the fewest children under 10 (8.5 percent and 9.2 percent), so Santa will save time on his sleigh ride and may have to pack his own strudel and biscotti.
Thanks again to Santa's Workshop for sharing their data endeavors with us. We're also excited to offer up a preview of our new charting and graphing tools, which will be available to subscribers next year.
