• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 24, 2010

  When it comes to talking and texting on mobile phones, African-Americans, women and Southerners are the most active users, according to data released today by Nielsen.

African-Americans use the most voice minutes, more than 1,300 a month on average, followed by Hispanics with 826 minutes a month. Even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use 647 voice minutes a month.

Blacks and Hispanics are also the most avid texters. Hispanics exchange about 767 SMS messages a month. while Blacks send and receive about 780 -- far more than Whites (566 texts a month). The Nielsen data roughly corresponds with findings from a Pew Research Center study in May that showed Blacks and English-speaking Latinos are among the biggest mobile Web users.

Cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among Whites (87% vs. 80%), according to Pew. But other recent research from comScore indicates that smartphone owners are still predominantly white. That suggests marketers targeting campaigns to devices like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones are largely missing out on reaching minority consumers.

In terms of gender, Nielsen found women talk 22% more than men (856 minutes a month compared to men's 667) and text more, too, with an average of 601 SMS messages a month compared to 447 for men.

Regionally, Southerners tend to talk the most on mobile phones, averaging more than 800 minutes a month. Mississippi, one of the nation's poorest states, ranks high in both talking and texting, according to Nielsen.

Looking at text use by age, it's no surprise that hyper-social teens are the most enthusiastic practitioners. Those under 18 exchange nearly 2,800 messages a month. That's more than twice as much as the 1,300 sent or received each month by 18- to 24-year-olds, the next most avid group.