Births among older consumers on the rise

The buying demographic for pregnancy test kits and ovulation test kits may be skewing older.

(For the full category review, including sales data, click here.)

According to the National Vital Statistics Report, released in September, the rate of pregnancy in women ages 35 years to 39 years increased 2% in 2012 to 48.3 births per 1,000 women, from 47.2 in 2011. The birth rate for women ages 40 years to 44 years has risen steadily since 2000 at 2% annually.

That could help explain some of the growth across several brands of pregnancy test kits. But more importantly, it may be an opportunity to target messaging against an older, untapped demographic.

While the category is up only 1.4% to $300.5 million for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 8 across total U.S. multi-outlets, according to IRI, Church & Dwight’s First Response experienced 7.5% growth on an $81.5 million base, and sales of Procter & Gamble’s Clearblue was up 23.6% to $39.5 million.