Individual to Market Demand

We’re all different as “individuals,” meaning we all like and need different things. You might like chocolate and need a coat, while I might like pineapple and need some shades. Different strokes for different folks.

Our individual demand curves are all about us, and just us. When we put all of those individual demand curves together, we get the market demand curve. This market demand curve shows total demand, or what fancy economists call “aggregate demand,” or “demand in the aggregate” if you’re feeling extra fly.

Market demand curves reflect the average of individuals’ demand for a good or service, along with all of their preferences. Individual demand is typically studied in microeconomics, while market demand as a whole is studied more in macroeconomics.