• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 5, 2013

The total consumer spending power of the U.S. multicultural market -- meaning the population exclusive of non-Hispanic whites -- was $1.3 trillion in 2012. Of that figure, U.S. Hispanics accounted for $560 billion, African-Americans $478 billion, and Asian-Americans $262 billion.
 
The Geoscape’s 2013 American Marketscape DataStream report also found that U.S. Hispanic and Asian-American households spend more money over the lifespan of the households, based on income levels and life expectancy, among other factors.

The research outfit calculates that cumulative lifetime spending for Asian-American households will come to $2.4 million in current dollars, while Hispanic households will spend $1.97 million. That compares to $1.57 million cumulative lifetime spending for non-Hispanic white households, and $1.35 million for African-American households.
 
Multicultural consumers will make up a growing share of the U.S. consumer marketplace in coming years, with the combined U.S. Hispanic, Asian-American and African-American population set to pass non-Hispanic whites around 2040, if current growth trends continue.

Hispanics are by far the fastest-growing part of the multicultural population, with the total Hispanic population set to increase from 50.5 million in 2010 to 62.5 million in 2018. That’s a 23.8% growth rate over that period, compared to an increase of just 6.5% for the U.S. population overall.
 
On this note, the Geoscape report points out that non-Hispanic whites are already in the minority in the country’s two largest states, making up 38.4% of the total population in California, and 43.3% in Texas. Hispanics make up 39.1% of California’s population and 39.2% of Texas’ population.
 
The Geoscape report also delves into the characteristics of specific segments of the multicultural market. For example, it notes that roughly 60% of Hispanics are bilingual to some degree, with nearly 80% speaking some level of Spanish and about 40% dependent on either English or Spanish. Within major metropolitan areas, roughly half of the Hispanic populations prefer Spanish.