In each of the seven demographic categories, you will see colored bars and grey bars.

The colored bars represents the percentage of the population in this culture that belongs to the identified group.

In this example, 9% of the culture’s population is poor or near poor.

The grey bars represent national averages.

In this example, we can see that 20% of the US population (between the ages of 18-74) is poor or near poor.

Over-Indexing and Under-Indexing

To calculate the over-index or under-index on a demographic group, simply subtract the percentage of the culture’s population that belong to the group from the national average. A positive number is an over-index, while a negative number is an under-index.

In the above culture, consumers over-index as middle class by 4% (54%-50% = 4%)

In the same culture, consumers under-index as low education by 10% (28% - 38% = -10%)