A series of stages used in marketing to categorise the different situations an individual consumer may go through in the course of a lifetime. The most commonly used such series is as follows.

• Bachelor: unmarried person under 35
• Newly married: under 35, no children
• Full nest I: married, youngest child under 6
• Full nest II: married, youngest child

• Full nest III: married, youngest child in teens
• Empty nest I: married, children left home
• Empty nest II: married, children left home, retired
• Solitary survivor: widow(er), children left home, still working
• Retired solitary survivor: as above, but retired.