• Brandweek, Tuesday, January 12, 2010 10:39 AM

A report commissioned by BET and based on U.S. Census Bureau data, shows that African-Americans are both better off financially and more suburban than previously thought, Todd Wasserman and Noreen O'Leary report. "African-Americans in 2010" also finds that the black population is growing 34% faster than the population as a whole, is younger, and tends to be single more than the general population.

Not all the news is rosy. Although more young black women are going to college, for example, men of the same age are not keeping pace, according to Jacklynn Topping, a business strategist and co-author of the study. But, she says, "the main point is that in times when you've got flat or declining sales, this is a growth market, and marketers need to look at it like that."

Co-author Peter Franchese, founder of American Demographics, says that the increasing move of African-Americans to the suburbs is likely to make black and white Americans much more similar down the road. But for the short term -- five to 10 years -- he thinks marketers need to address African-Americans "with a deeper understanding of the cultural differences."

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