What is a consumer?
A “consumer” is someone able to buy goods and services other than those that satisfy our basic needs. We define the number of consumers as the number of people in the middle class. The size of the global consumer class will increase from 3.5 billion in 2017 to 5.6 billion by 2030 using a definition of having more than 10 USD per day to live on.
The number of people in the consumer class by 2030
The number of "Earths" we will need by 2030 to provide resources for 5.6 billion consumers and absorb the waste.
Number of Earths humanity currently uses
To provide for our consumption
Developments of the consumer class around the world
Between 2017 and 2030 over 2 billion people will enter the consumer class, mostly in Asia. The combination of large populations and high economic growth means that China and India will be the key drivers of the expansion of the consumer class in the coming decades.
A shifting global consumer landscape
In 2009, 54 percent of consumers lived in Europe and North America and only half as many in the Asia/-Pacific region. By 2030, two thirds of consumers will come from the Asia-Pacific while just 21 percent from Europe and North America.
The next billion consumers
88% of the next billion consumers will be from Asia.
- 380 million from India
- 350 million from China
- 210 million from rest of Asia
- 130 million from rest of the world
By 2030, Asia could make up two thirds of the global middle class.
More consumers, more environmental impacts
More people buying more products means that more natural resources are required and more waste is produced. Every year we extract more than 55 billion tons of biomass, fossil energy, metal and minerals from the earth meaning almost 10 tons for every person in the world.
For people in the consumer class much more natural resources are used per person. So the number will go up.
“the inhabitants of the developed nations of the world consume resources like oil and metals at a rate almost 32 times greater than those of the developing world”.
- Jared Diamond,, The New York Times, 2008.
The State of the World 2005 report states that:
“The world's ecological capacity is simply insufficient to satisfy the ambitions of China, India, Japan, Europe and the United States as well as the aspirations of the rest of the world in a sustainable way”.
If everyone lived like western consumers...
The Global Footprint Network calculates the environmental footprint of consumers from different countries. If everyone on Earth lived like...
...the average Australian consumer we would need 5.4 planets to support us
...the average American consumer we would need 5.2 planets to support us
...the average German consumer we would need 3.4 planets to support us
...the average British consumer we would need 3.1 planets to support us
...the average Japanese consumer we would need 3 planets to support us
The jokers: China and India
India and China are the two countries where the number of consumers will grow the most. If everyone on Earth lived like the average Chinese consumer we would need 2.2 planets to support us. For India the number is 0.7 meaning within the planet’s capacity. But that will change.
Earth Overshoot Day
The Global Footprint Network also estimates how long it takes consumers from different countries to use up one year of Earth's biocapacity. When the bio-capacity is used up in less than a year we live in what the GFN calls ecological "overshoot".
(World Biocapacity / World Ecological Footprint) X 365 = Earth Overshoot Day
In 2020, the world had used up what nature is capable of regenerating in a year on 22 August (Earth Overshoot Day). This means we currently overuse Earth resources by about 175 percent.
Ecological overshoot of countries
A country’s overshoot day is the date Earth Overshoot Day would fall if everyone on the planet consumed like the people in this country. In some countries Earth Overshoot Day happens alarmingly early in the year.
- Luxembourg: 17 February
- Qatar: 19 February
- Australia: 12 March
- Canada: 13 March
- US: 14 March
- Denmark: 28 March
- Korea: 17 April
- Germany: 2 May
- UK: 8 May
- China: 23 June
- Brazil: 26 July
- Thailand 31 August
- Mexico: 1 September
A consumer class of 5 billion people will put enormous pressure on Earth and our natural habitats. Just to take an example, the global car fleet is expected to nearly double to 1.7 billion by 2035. That will require enormous amounts of energy, steel, rubber, glass and so on.
Tonnes of resources extracted from Earth
Globally, this year
World population
All of us, right now
The end of the world as we know it?
Time left till possible collapse of Earth's support systems
