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By David Dodson
ddodson@terry.uga.edu
 Among the four primary U.S. minority groups--blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Americans Indians--consumer buying power nearly doubled in the 1990s and grew at a far faster rate than overall U.S. buying power, according to a new UGA study.
The study projects behavior through 2001 and finds that, while Asian consumer buying power has had the highest percentage of growth since 1990 (124.8 percent), Hispanics (second highest, at 118 percent) made the most significant move in the ’90s because of market size, population growth and employment gains. In the same period, overall U.S. buying power will have grown 70.4 percent.
By 2001, U.S. buying power will reach $7.1 trillion, according to the report prepared by the Terry College of Business. Among minority groups, black consumers comprise the largest buying-power group at $572.1 billion, followed by Asians at $253.8 billion and American Indians at $34.8 billion.  Hispanic buying power will comprise $452.4 billion.
“This is a wake-up call for any consumer business that’s been neglecting these markets,” says Jeffrey M. Humphreys, director of economic forecasting in the Terry College and the study’s author. “While the largest corporations have been researching and pursuing minority markets for quite a while, small- and medium-sized companies still have a window to tap into this growth segment before it’s saturated with marketing.”
Buying power, often referred to as “disposable income,” is the total personal income available after taxes for spending on goods and services. The Terry College study uses U.S. Census standards, so Hispanics are reported as a composite of racial sub-groups, unlike the distinct categories for blacks, Asians, and American Indians.
“Buying Power at the Beginning of a New Century: Projections for 2000 and 2001” is Humphreys’s ninth state-by-state study of minority buying power dating back to 1990. He began focusing on African Americans and has gradually expanded the series to include the nation’s four most populous minority groups. By comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics annually reports national and regional estimates on what consumers purchased in the previous year, without any year-to-year comparisons or projections. |
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