The EU15 countries struggled to overcome the European economic climate and only France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg recorded net gains according to the Global Market Research Report 2014 from Esomar.

North America faired better showing a net growth of 2.9% and $15.7bn of revenue.

However confidence in the market research industry appears to have strengthened: 82% of the countries that provided forecasts expect their local market to grow in 2014, compared with 60% in 2013.

Traditional market research reached a value of $40.3bn in 2013 globally, with a modest 2.8% increase. Overall, the broader business intelligence market increased by 50% however, to reach $60bn globally.The world’s best performing markets in 2013 were Myanmar (+50.0%), Lebanon (+38.4%) and Bangladesh (+28.4%), all posting growth from a small base while Iraq (-45.5%), Cyprus ( 36.9%) and Portugal (-22.4%) were the worst performers.