Frequently requested data on African American consumers
Buying Power:
$631 Billion (2002)
Black U.S. Population:
38.3 million
Top Five Black Cities
- New York
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Philadelphia
- Houston
Top Five Black Metros:
- New York-New Jersey
- Washington-Baltimore
- Chicago-Gary
- Los Angeles
- Philadelphia
Top Five Expenditures:
- Housing 130 billion
- Food 52.4 billion
- Cars/Trucks 48.7
- Clothing 22.3 billion
- Health Care 14.5 billion
______________________
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U.S. Census
Bureau Data
Click here to go to African-American Census Bureau data
Black women continue to be the driving force in the market's growth
African-Americans continue to increase their spending in proportion to their rising income, according to the newest edition of “The Buying Power of Black America” study. Black households also continue to spend more collectively than Hispanics or other minorities in virtually every consumer product and service category.
The
findings come from the latest edition of the annually published report from
Target Market News, a 15-year-old research and information company
specializing in black consumer marketing and media. The “Buying Power”
report, which has been published annually for a decade, is one of the most
widely quoted sources of information on black consumer behavior.“These latest findings demonstrate how resilient the black consumer market is,” said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News and publisher of the report. “African-Americans are still showing a rise in income and they are having a tremendous impact on the marketplace, especially during this economically slow period. Marketers and manufacturers cannot afford to take them for granted.”
According to the report, black households had $631 billion in earned income in 2002, an increase of 4.8% over the $602 billion earned in 2001.
While other ethnic groups are growing in population, black consumers are still out-spending all other groups in apparel, food, beverages, cars, and trucks, home furnishings, telephone service and travel.
The purchases made by black women are the single biggest influence on the growth of African-American spending. With more income to spend, black women have increased expenditures over last year in categories in which they are the dominant buyers. These include child care (+8%), personal care products (+18%), gifts (+155%), food (+3%), women’s apparel (+2%), women’s footwear (+13%).
Some of the more expensive items showed signs of being affected by the economic downturn. Among these were computers (-10%), cars and trucks
(-4%), and travel (-6%). There was also a drop in the dollars spent on so-called “sin” products, including tobacco products (-16%) and alcoholic beverages (-25%).
“The Buying Power of Black America” report is based on an analysis of expenditures reported by 3,000 black households for the Department of Commerce’s Consumer Expenditure Survey.
|
Apparel Products and Services |
$22.9 billion |
|
Appliances |
$1.5 billion |
|
Beverages (Alcoholic) |
$2.2 billion |
|
Beverages (Non-Alcoholic) |
$2.9 billion |
|
Books |
$303 million |
|
Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles |
$29.1 billion |
|
Computers and Related Equipment |
$1.9 billion |
|
Consumer Electronics |
$3.2 billion |
|
Contributions |
$10.3 billion |
|
Education |
$4.6 billion |
|
Entertainment and Leisure |
$2.5 billion |
|
Food |
$53.9 billion |
|
Gifts |
$7.9 billion |
|
Health Care |
$16.7 billion |
|
Household Furnishings and Equipment |
$11.6 billion |
|
Housewares |
$1.1 billion |
|
Housing and Related Charges |
$131.7 billion |
|
Insurance |
$14.8 billion |
|
Media |
$5.3 billion |
|
Personal Care Products and Services |
$6.2 billion |
|
Sports and Recreational Equipment |
$386 million |
|
Telephone Services |
$13.6 billion |
|
Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies |
$2.6 billion |
|
Toys, Games and Pets |
$1.9 billion |
|
Travel, Transportation and Lodging |
$5.1 billion |
Copyright © 2003 Target Market News. All rights reserved. From "The Buying Power of Black America - 2003" Do not cite without proper credit. Click here to order report
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Speakers at this year's Summit:
Hugh Brown / The Media Audit
Oveda Brown / Scarborough
Barry Cooper / BlackVoices.com
Julian Davis / Arbitron
Morris Davis / M. Davis & Co.
Ron Franklin / GlobalHue
Valerie Graves / UniWorld
Craig Gillmore / State Farm
Mellody Hobson / Ariel Capital Mgt
Linda Jefferson / Burrell
Dwight Johnson / Census Bureau
Renetta McCann / Starcom
Pepper Miller / Hunter-Miller Group
Chuck Morrison / UniWorld
Marty Revel / BMW North America
David Rudd / Motorola
Ken Smikle / Target Market News
Launa Thompson / WGCI Chicago
Omar Wasow / BlackPlanet.com
Carol Williams / Carol H. Williams Advertising
Christine Wood / Newspaper Assoc. of America
Deborah Gray Young / E. Morris Communications
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