Estimating # of couples

Question

If I take population, segment by age group (say there are 10 M people in the 20-40 years category), can I find the # of couples in this age group by just thinking of it as 10 M people so that's 5M "pairs", I'll assume 30% are single and remaining 70% are couples..(so it's 70% x 5M pairs). Or is there another way to do this?

Answer 1

Your approach seems to make sense for that particular age group.

But this questions seems a bit too simple for an actual interview case. If I was an interviewer I would probably ask some follow up question. E.g.

What ways do you see to verify the 70%? What data points would you look at?
What other way could you think of to estimate the number?

Might be an interesting exercise to further refine your consulting skills ;)

Answer 2

Hi there,

That's right. You've actually overcomplicated a bit and can really just say "I think about 70% of that group are couples", then divide by two. It's a more logical/linear way of thinking!

Don't forget, uuse your own knowledge/experiences as a reference point when doing this. "I'll assume" is a weak statement in market sizing.

Answer 3

Hi, if you are only interested in this age group it makes total sense

Best,
Antonello

Answer 4

I think this could work