U.S. Market Research Industry: Size, Growth & Recruitment
The U.S. market research industry reached $36.8B in 2025. Discover how brands recruit high-value participants using AI, incentives, and multi-channel strategies.
# U.S. Market Research Industry: Size, Growth, and High-Value Participant Recruitment
Article Content
The U.S. market research industry reached $36.8 billion in 2025, representing a critical pillar of American business intelligence. The U.S. holds 55% of total market research market share, underscoring the nation's dominance in data-driven decision-making. As brands increasingly rely on consumer insights to navigate competitive markets, understanding the industry's trajectory and recruitment strategies has become essential for research professionals.
Market Size and Growth Trajectory
The U.S. market research industry increased 3.0% in 2025, with projections reaching $37.7 billion in 2026. Globally, the momentum is even more pronounced: the market research industry is projected to reach approximately $150 billion in 2026, continuing strong growth from $140 billion in 2024.
The industry's long-term expansion has been substantial. Between 2021 and 2024, the market research industry grew by 37.25% from $102 billion to $140 billion, demonstrating resilience and accelerating demand for consumer and market intelligence.
Employment and Workforce Expansion
Employment of market research analysts is projected to grow 7 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations. Market research analysts held about 941,700 jobs in 2024, with the median annual wage for market research analysts at $76,950 in May 2024.
Employment growth is expected to be driven by an increasing use of data and market research across many industries, as organizations prioritize data-driven strategies over intuition-based decision-making.
How Brands Recruit High-Value Participants
Successful market research depends entirely on participant quality. Well-executed participant recruitment is essential to reliable market research, and any study – whether involving recruitment for qualitative research or recruitment for quantitative research – of buyers in a new market needs to have high-quality respondents who give honest and thorough responses to questions.