• by Masha Geller , October 8, 2002

The Hispanic population of this country is getting a lot of attention this week. Most notably, comScore Networks on Tuesday announced the launch of their brand new Hispanic audience measurement service, which aims to report the online surfing and buying behavior of the fast-growing online Hispanic population.

According to the company, the new service will be broadly available to clients in the fourth quarter 2002, and will be based on the Web-wide buying and surfing behavior of a representative online panel of 50,000 U.S. Hispanics.

comScore also promises that the new service will feature both national and local market detail, including data for top Hispanic markets including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, and Chicago. Data for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will also be available as a supplement to the U.S. service.

Incidentally, according to Nielsen Media Research, the growth of the 2003 Universe Estimates (U.E.) was driven largely by U.S. Hispanics, who accounted for 84% of growth in the Total U.S. Adult 18-34 and Adult 18-49 demographics, Hispanic populations that grew by 40% and 24%, respectively, compared to 2001.

Additionally, one out of every six persons 18-34, one out of every seven Adults 18-49 and one out of every five children in the United States is Hispanic. More importantly for online marketers, the U.S. Hispanic population continues to be significantly younger than the non-Hispanic population, with 65% of U.S. Hispanics under the age of 35 compared to 45% of the non-Hispanic population under the age of 35.