Who's That Talking?

According to a recent Nielsen analysis of mobile use, African-Americans use the most cellphone voice minutes every month, averaging more than 1,300.  Hispanics are the next most talkative group, at 826 minutes a month. And, even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use roughly 647 voice minutes a month.

Hispanics send and receive around 767 SMS messages a month while African-Americans send and receive around 780 - significantly more than Asians/Pacific Islanders (384 texts a month) and Whites (566 texts a month).

Women in the U.S. talk more than men on their cellphones, according to the Nielsen data. On average, women talk 22 % more than men (856.3 minutes a month compared to men's 666.7). And, American women are more communicative in general on mobile devices, sending or receiving an average of 601 SMS messages a month compared to the 447 monthly text messages sent or received by the average American male.

Seventy-five percent of 12-17-year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns. Fully 72% of all teens, or 88% of teen cell phone users, are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters, notes Marketing Charts.

Teens send or receive 2,779 text messages a month. In the next two age brackets, text usage falls by more than half each time, with those aged 18-24 sending or receiving 1,299 messages and those aged 25-34 exchanging an average of 592 messages. While the text usage varies greatly between those 18-24 and those 25-34, their voice usage is quite close.

Location plays into usage patterns as well. Southerners are the most talkative, but while Florida ranks high in terms of monthly voice minutes used, it ranks very low for text messaging. Mississippi, interestingly enough, ranks high for both talking and texting.

More details from the Marketing Charts summary note that eight Southern states all have the highest average of more than 800 voice minutes per month. The New England state of Rhode Island is the only other state in the US with an average this high.

The other clear regional voice usage patterns are a lower monthly average in the three West Coast states averaging 600-700 minutes per month, and five New England states besides Rhode Island with less than 600 minutes per month. Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts average 600-700 minutes per month.

The one clear Regional text pattern that stands out is a reluctance by traditional New Englanders to send text messages, averaging 400-500 messages per month, except Vermont, which averages less than 400.

For more information from Nielsen, including charts and graphs, please visit here.