text: how would demographics be useful if you wanted to start a business?   not everyone is your target market. demographics allow you to determine your market and the number of your target market in order to verify whether the business can be profitable.  on the web for example, a website needs to determine the demographics of their visitors -- their age, country, occupation and customer segmentation. these information can help them tailor their content to their audience. a website that attracts baby boomers, for example, would offer a different set of content from those that attract high schoolers.  if you are planning to open a restaurant and you are thinking of a high end fine dining gourmet restaurant. but the demographics of the area where you are planning to open the store shows that the residents in the area are low to middle class income families. then it doesn't make much sense to open a high end restaurant -- unless you can find a way to bring the high income residents (your target market) to go to a low income place and dine.  a catalog business offering men's products may go after professionals earning $100,000 a year, about 30-52 in age, who owns a house and drives a sports car. that's demographics at work.  demographics is an important tool in market segmentation. they are a way for you to find your perfect prospects!