Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

Hispanic buying power in the United States will draw even with African-American buying power in 2006 -- at just under $800 billion -- and is projected to exceed it in 2007, according to a report on minority buying power released Friday by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business.

Hispanics actually surpassed blacks as the nation's largest minority group five years ago, based on population counts.

"The economic clout of Hispanics has risen from $212 billion in 1990, when I first started doing this study, to $798 billion this year and I expect it to be almost $1.2 trillion five years from now," said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center.

"Still, even as Hispanic buying power overtakes African American buying power at the national level, it is important to recognize that in the majority of states the African American market will continue to be much larger than the Hispanic market," Humphreys said.

The Selig Center's annual report includes state-by-state projections of buying power for the nation's three most populous racial groups, as well as Hispanics, who are categorized by the U.S. Census as an ethnic minority and not a racial minority.

Better employment opportunities and higher business ownership are the other driving forces boosting the Hispanic consumer market.

Asian buying power will grow 434 percent between 1990 and 2011 (versus the 457 percent gain for Hispanics).

As of 2006, 11 states have reached that benchmark, on its way to 14 states by 2011.

However, California still accounts for 33 percent of the nation's Asian consumer market.

Buying power for Native Americans, the smallest of the four minority groups included in the Selig Center report, will total $53.9 billion in 2006 and rise to $73 billion in 2011.

That projects to 270 percent growth in buying power from 1990 to 2011, which exceeds the estimated growth rate for U.S. buying power as a whole (190 percent) over the same period.

Available for purchase from the Selig Center as a pre-packaged book and CD, "The Multicultural Economy" estimates minority buying power by applying economic modeling and forecasting techniques to data from various U.S. government sources.

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