Who's Buying by Race and Hispanic Origin

Description

Who's Buying by Race and Hispanic Origin brings you the demographics of spending by race and Hispanic origin on hundreds of products and services in ten major categories ranging from apparel to transportation.The spending data in Who's Buying by Race and Hispanic Origin are based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, an ongoing, nationwide survey of household spending. The Consumer Expenditure Survey is a complete accounting of household expenditures. It includes everything from big-ticket items such as homes and cars, to small purchases like laundry detergent and videos. The survey does not include expenditures by government, business, or institutions. The lag time between data collection and dissemination is about two years. The data in this report are from the 2008 Consumer Expenditure Survey.To produce this report, New Strategist Publications analyzed the Consumer Expenditure Survey's household spending data by race and Hispanic origin, calculating household spending indexes, aggregate (or total) household spending, and market shares. This report presents detailed spending data by race and Hispanic origin for the ten major product and service categories: Apparel; Entertainment; Financial Products and Services; Food and Alcoholic Beverages; Gifts for People in Other Households; Health Care; Housing: Household Operations; Housing: Shelter; Personal Care, Reading, Education, and Tobacco; and Transportation.When examining the data in Who's Buying by Race and Hispanic Origin, keep in mind the definitions of the race and Hispanic origin categories used in the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Asians include both Hispanics and non-Hispanics who identify themselves as being Asian alone and no other race. Blacks include both Hispanics and non-Hispanics who identify themselves as being black alone and no other race. Hispanics include people of any race (they could be Asian, black, or white) who identify themselves as Hispanic. The Non-Hispanic white and other group includes people who identify themselves as non-Hispanic and white and/or any other race except black. Thus, the non-Hispanic white and other group includes Alaska Natives, American Indians, Asians (who are also counted in the Asian column), Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, and the multiracial. Because of these overlapping definitions, numbers by race and Hispanic origin do not sum to the total in the Total Spending and Market Share tables of this report. Asians are counted twice (in the Asian group and in the Non-Hispanic white and other group). Hispanic blacks are counted twice (in the Black group and in the Hispanic group). Hispanic Asians are counted twice (in the Asian group and in the Hispanic group). Despite these overlaps, the Consumer Expenditure Survey's race and Hispanic origin categories succeed in revealing the unique spending patterns of Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites.The Consumer Expenditure Survey's average spending data are shown in this report's average spending tables. New Strategist's editors calculated the figures in the other tables of this report based on the average figures. The indexed spending tables reveal whether households in a given segment spend more or less than the average household and by how much. The total (or aggregate) spending tables show the overall size of the household market. The market share tables reveal how much spending each household segment controls. This report examines the spending of minorities, but naturally minority market shares are relatively small. For many products and services, however, Asians, blacks, and Hispanics account for a disproportionate share of the market. The three groups together (with some overlap, because Hispanics may be of any race) account for a substantial share of household spending.