• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 21, 2004

Hispanics Have the Numbers But Asians Have the Income

In the 85 metro markets surveyed by The Media Audit, Hispanics outnumber Asians by more than two to one, 18,370,000 to 7,672,000. But, 1,488,000 Asian households have annual incomes of $100,000 or more compared to 1,476,000 Hispanic households.

Among households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more Hispanics barely outnumber Asians 3,039,000 to 2,718,000 With annual incomes of $50,000 or more Hispanics outnumber Asians 5,786,000 to 4,289,000.

Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., producer of The Media Audit, says "The adult Hispanic population in the 85 markets exceeds the adult Asian population by more than 139 percent, but the number of Hispanic households with incomes of $75,000 or more exceeds the number of Asian households with the same income by just 12%. When annual household incomes are $50,000 or more, Hispanic households exceed Asian households by 39 percent." says.

"Hispanics, because of their numbers, will be a better market than Asians for the essentials of daily life but Asians may be a better market for products and services that are thought of as luxury goods," says Jordan.

Among Asians, 55.9 percent have incomes of $50,000 plus compared to 49.6 percent in the general population and 31.5 percent in the Hispanic population.

Just 10.3 percent of Asian households have incomes under $25,000 compared to 16.4 percent in the general population and 24.4 percent in the Hispanic community.

In the $35,000 to $50,000 income range all three groups are almost within one point of one another, ranging from 22.2 to 23.3.

"In the upper incomes," saysJ ordan, "Asians surpass all other groups - the majority as well as minorities - in the percentage of households earning $50,000 plus, $75,000 plus and $100,000 plus."

Asian readership of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal indexes at 170 and 159 respectively. (An index of 100 is the market average.)

They index at 154 among heavy users of the Internet. (A heavy user spends at least 430 minutes per week online.)

Asians also shop on the Internet with 30.9 percent (an index of 137) making five or more purchases during the past year and 55.8 percent making at least one Internet purchase (an index of 135) during the year.

All Data Source: The Media Audit.